Graphical interface device, graphical interface method and medium

ABSTRACT

An information processing device, method and computer program product use a display controller that causes a display device to display a cluster name having a data item association with a cluster of at least one data item. An operation acquisition portion is configured to acquire information associated with a user operation performed on the cluster. An editing portion edits the cluster name and data item association in accordance with the user operation. As a consequence the associations between data items may easily be formed along with associated cluster names formed.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to an information processing device, aninformation processing method and a computer program product.

BACKGROUND ART

Content clustering is widely known as a grouping technique in which, forexample, photographs are grouped based on whether their image capturingpositions or image capturing times are close to each other. The amountof content held by a user has increased dramatically along with anincrease in capacity of a storage device, and the like. In order toeasily search or view a large amount of content, technology has beendeveloped that allows automatic content clustering.

For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a technology in whichclustering of image content items is automatically performed based onthe image capturing position, and the generated clusters are furthergrouped using the image capturing date and time. Patent Literature 2discloses a technology in which clustering of image content items isautomatically performed based on the image capturing date and time.

CITATION LIST Patent Literature

PTL 1: Japanese Patent No. 4412342

PTL 2: Japanese Patent No. 4577173

SUMMARY Technical Problem

However, there is a case in which the name that is automaticallyassigned to the cluster by the above-described technology is notnecessarily the name that the user wants. In this type of case, the useradds editing to the name that has been automatically assigned to thecluster. A user interface (UI) that is used at this time requiresfurther improvements in operability.

To address this, the present disclosure provides an informationprocessing device, an information processing method and a computerprogram product that are novel and improved and that are capable ofediting a cluster name by a more intuitive and simple operation.

Solution to Problem

An information processing device, method and computer program productuse a display controller that causes a display device to display acluster name having a data item association with a cluster of at leastone data item. An operation acquisition portion is configured to acquireinformation associated with a user operation performed on the cluster.An editing portion edits the cluster name and data item association inaccordance with the user operation. As a consequence the associationsbetween data items may easily be formed along with associated clusternames formed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing a functionalconfiguration of an information processing device according to a firstembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example in which clusters are generatedin the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example in which the clusters aregenerated in the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example in which the clusters arecombined in the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a first example in which the cluster isdivided in the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a second example in which the cluster isdivided in the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a third example in which the cluster isdivided in the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster is deletedin the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example in which clusters are combined bymovement of a cluster display in a second embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example in which the clusters arecombined by a pinch operation in the second embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster is dividedby a pinch operation in the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example in which the hierarchy of thecluster display is changed by an expanding and contracting operation inthe second embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster is dividedby a movement operation in the second embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example in which clusters are displayedas nodes of a tree structure in a third embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of movement betweenclusters that are displayed as nodes of a tree structure in the thirdembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster is dividedusing a tree structure display in the third embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example in which the clusters aregenerated and combined using the tree structure display in the thirdembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster is deletedusing the tree structure display in the third embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating a tree structure of cluster names in afourth embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster name ischanged by an operation that moves a cluster name display in the fourthembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster name ischanged by selection from a list in the fourth embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster name ischanged by a pinch operation on the cluster name display in the fourthembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster name is setusing the tree structure display in a fifth embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a chosendimensional feature space and a two-dimensional feature space.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing an example in which clusters are combinedin a sixth embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating a feature space and position data itemin a seventh embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 27 is a diagram showing an example in which a folder is generatedin the seventh embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing an example in which folders are combined inthe seventh embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing a first example in which the folder isdivided in the seventh embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 30 is a diagram showing a second example in which the folder isdivided in the seventh embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 31 is a diagram showing an example in which the folder is deletedin the seventh embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 32 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of theinformation processing device according to the embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present disclosure will bedescribed in detail with reference to the appended drawings. Note that,in this specification and the appended drawings, structural elementsthat have substantially the same function and structure are denoted withthe same reference numerals, and repeated explanation of thesestructural elements is omitted.

Note that the explanation will be given in the order shown below.

1. First embodiment

2. Second embodiment

3. Third embodiment

4. Fourth embodiment

5. Fifth embodiment

6. Sixth embodiment

7. Seventh embodiment

8. Hardware configuration

9. Supplement

1. First Embodiment

Firstly, a first embodiment of the present disclosure will be explainedwith reference to FIG. 1 to FIG. 8.

(Device Configuration)

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing a functionalconfiguration of an information processing device 10 according to afirst embodiment of the present disclosure.

The information processing device 10 is, for example, a personalcomputer (PC), a game console, a digital camera, a video camera, amobile phone, a smart phone, a tablet terminal, a car navigation system,a personal digital assistant (PDA), or the like. The informationprocessing device 10 includes an operation acquisition portion 11, acluster editing portion 12, a cluster name editing portion 13, a displaycontrol portion 14 and a display portion 15.

The operation acquisition portion 11 acquires information about anoperation performed by a user on a data display, a cluster display or acluster name display that are displayed on the display portion 15. Theoperation acquisition portion 11 takes the form of, for example, aninput device such as a touch panel or a mouse, or an interface thatacquires information from the input device. The operation acquisitionportion 11 provides information about the acquired operation to thecluster editing portion 12 or to the cluster name editing portion 13.Further, the operation acquisition portion 11 may provide theinformation about the acquired operation to the display control portion14.

The cluster editing portion 12 edits a cluster in accordance with theinformation about the operation acquired by the operation acquisitionportion 11. The cluster editing portion 12 takes the form of, forexample, a central processing unit (CPU), a random access memory (RAM),a read only memory (ROM) or the like of the information processingdevice 10. Position data item of a feature space is classified in thecluster. The cluster editing portion 12 performs, for example, clustergeneration, combining, division, deletion and the like, as editing ofthe cluster. The cluster editing portion 12 reflects an editing resulton cluster information 16, and at the same time, the cluster editingportion 12 provides the editing result to the display control portion14.

The cluster name editing portion 13 edits a cluster name in accordancewith the information about the operation acquired by the operationacquisition portion 11. The cluster name editing portion 13 takes theform of, for example, the CPU, the RAM, the ROM or the like of theinformation processing device 10. The cluster name is a name assigned tothe cluster. The cluster name editing portion 13 performs, for example,a change of the length of the cluster name and a change of content ofthe cluster name, as editing of the cluster name. The cluster nameediting portion 13 reflects an editing result on the cluster information16, and provides the editing result to the display control portion 14.

The display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15 to displayat least one of the data display, the cluster display and the clustername display. The display control portion 14 takes the form of, forexample, the CPU, the RAM, the ROM or the like of the informationprocessing device 10. The display control portion 14 changes the clusterdisplay or the cluster name display to be displayed on the displayportion 15, in accordance with the editing result of the cluster or thecluster name by the cluster editing portion 12 or the cluster nameediting portion 13. Further, the display control portion 14 may display,on the display portion 15, the information about the operation acquiredby the operation acquisition portion 11, for example, a trajectory of apointing operation.

At least one of the data display, the cluster display and the clustername display is displayed on the display portion 15 by the displaycontrol portion 14. The display portion 15 takes the form of, forexample, an output device of the information processing device 10. Thedisplay portion 15 visually presents to the user the position data itemof the feature space, the cluster and the cluster name. Note that thedisplay portion 15 need not necessarily be included in the informationprocessing device 10. The information processing device 10 maycommunicate with the display portion 15 that takes the form of aseparate display device, and may display the data display, the clusterdisplay or the cluster name display on the display portion 15.

The cluster information 16 is information that includes informationabout the position data item of the feature space, information about thecluster whose position data item is classified, and information aboutthe cluster name. The cluster information 16 is stored, for example, ina storage device of the information processing device 10. Note that thecluster information 16 need not necessarily be held inside theinformation processing device 10, and the information processing device10 may acquire the cluster information 16 from storage on a networkaccording to need.

While the above described embodiment includes the operation acquisitionportion 11, display control portion 14, cluster editing portion 12, andcluster name editing portion 13 in a common device, an alternativeembodiment uses a remote server, or group of servers, in a cloudresource to perform all or some of the functions performed by thedisplay control portion 14, cluster editing portion 12, and cluster nameediting portion 13. Communications between the operation acquisitionportion 11, and display portion 14 with the other portions are performedvia wired or wireless network connections such as through an Internetconnection.

(Generation of Clusters)

FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are diagrams each showing an example in which clustersare generated in the first embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 2shows a state before the clusters are generated. FIG. 3 shows a user'soperation to generate the clusters and a state after the clusters havebeen generated.

In FIG. 2, the display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15to display a map 100 and image icons 110. The map 100 is atwo-dimensional feature space in which the position is defined by thelatitude and longitude. The image icons 110 are icons each indicatingcaptured image content. Information about an image capturing position isadded to the captured image content, as position data item on the map100. Each of the image icons 110 is, based on the position data item,displayed on the image capturing position of each of the image contentitems on the map 100. In other words, the image icons 110 are datadisplays indicating the position data item of the feature space.

In (a) of FIG. 3, the operation acquisition portion 11 acquirestrajectories 120 of user's pointing operations with respect to the imageicons 110 displayed on the display portion 15. When the operationacquisition portion 11 is a mouse, for example, each of the trajectories120 can be acquired as a trajectory of a pointer moved by the mouse.Further, for example, when the operation acquisition portion 11 is atouch panel, each of the trajectories 120 can be acquired as atrajectory of a user's touch on the display portion 15.

Further, when the operation acquisition portion 11 is a touch panel, theoperation acquisition portion 11 may enter a cluster editing mode from anormal mode when the operation acquisition portion 11 detects a user'stouch on a specific section, such as a lower left corner section of thedisplay portion 15, and may acquire the trajectory 120, as shown in (a)of FIG. 3. For example, in the normal mode, the operation acquisitionportion 11 acquires movement of the user's touch on the display portion15, as a dragging operation to move the map 10, for example. On theother hand, in the cluster editing mode in which the user continues totouch the specific section of the display portion 15, the operationacquisition portion 11 acquires the trajectory 120 based on the user'stouch on the display portion 15.

As a result, it is possible to identify a case in which the user wantsto edit the cluster. Thus, it is possible to achieve both theoperability of a drag operation etc. in the normal mode and theoperability of the cluster editing using the trajectory 120 in thecluster editing mode.

Further, the operation acquisition portion 11 provides information aboutthe trajectory 120 to the cluster editing portion 12 and the displaycontrol portion 14. When the cluster editing portion 12 acquires theinformation about the trajectory 120, the cluster editing portion 12determines how to edit the cluster based on the shape of the trajectory120. On the other hand, when the display control portion 14 acquires theinformation about the trajectory 120, the display control portion 14causes the display portion 15 to display the trajectory 120 as shown in(a) of FIG. 3.

In the example shown in (a) of FIG. 3, the trajectories 120 classify theimage icons 110 into three groups and surround the classified imageicons 110. When the trajectories 120 surround the image icons 110 inthis way, the cluster editing portion 12 generates new clusters thatcontain the image content items indicated by the surrounded image icons110. Therefore, in the example shown in (a) of FIG. 3, the clusterediting portion 12 generates three new clusters.

In (b) of FIG. 3, the cluster editing portion 12 generates the clustersthat contain the image content items indicated by the image icons 110.These clusters are expressed as regions on the map 100 that contain theimage icons 110. The cluster editing portion 12 provides informationabout the generated clusters to the display control portion 14, and thedisplay control portion 14 causes the display portion 15 to displaycluster displays 130 that indicate the generated clusters. Note that,although in the example shown in (b) of FIG. 3, the cluster displays 130have a circular shape, it is merely an example and the cluster displays130 may have a variety of shapes, such as a rectangular shape and apolygonal shape.

At this time, the display control portion 14 may delete the image icons110 contained in each of the cluster displays 130 from the displayportion 15. By doing this, overlap between each cluster display 130 andthe image icons 110 can be inhibited, and visibility can be improved. Inaddition, it is possible to reduce the number of objects to be displayedon the display portion 15 by the display control portion 14, andhighspeed display is achieved.

Further, the display control portion 14 may move the displayed map 100in accordance with the cluster display 130. For example, the displaycontrol portion 14 matches the center of the map 100 with the center ofthe cluster display 130. When there are a plurality of the clusterdisplays 130, the display control portion 14 may match the center of themap 100 with the center of the plurality of cluster displays 130.

Further, the display control portion 14 may change the scale of thedisplayed map 100 in accordance with the cluster display 130. Forexample, the display control portion 14 displays the map 100 at amaximum scale under the condition that the diameter of the clusterdisplay 130 is smaller than the short side of the map 100. However, whenthere are a plurality of the cluster displays 130, the display controlportion 14 may set the scale of the map 100 such that all the pluralityof cluster displays 130 are displayed.

In this way, the display control portion 14 moves the displayed map 100in accordance with the cluster display 130 before and after the editing,or changes the scale of the displayed map 100. Thus, a subsequentediting operation can be easily performed on the edited cluster display130.

On the other hand, the cluster editing portion 12 may provide theinformation about the generated clusters to the cluster name editingportion 13, and the cluster name editing portion 13 may generate acluster name for each of the generated clusters. Note that any knowntechnique can be used to generate the cluster name, although the dataitems share a common data item association or feature attribute withother data items in the cluster. In this case, the cluster name editingportion 13 provides information about the generated cluster name to thedisplay control portion 14, and the display control portion 14 displaysthe cluster name in the vicinity of the corresponding cluster display130, as a cluster name display 140.

(Combining of Clusters)

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example in which the clusters arecombined in the first embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 4 showsstates before and after the clusters are combined.

In (a) of FIG. 4, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the map 100, the cluster displays 130 and thecluster name displays 140. The operation acquisition portion 11 acquiresthe trajectory 120. The operation acquisition portion 11 providesinformation about the trajectory 120 to the cluster editing portion 12and the display control portion 14. The display control portion 14causes the display portion 15 to display the trajectory 120 as shown in(a) of FIG. 4. Here, in a similar way to the example of the clustergeneration, the operation acquisition portion 11 may enter the clusterediting mode from the normal mode in response to a user's touch on thespecific section of the display portion 15, and may acquire thetrajectory 120.

In the example shown in (a) of FIG. 4, the trajectory 120 surrounds thetwo cluster displays 130. When the trajectory 120 surrounds the clusterdisplays 130 in this manner, the cluster editing portion 12 generates anew cluster that contains the clusters shown by the surrounded clusterdisplays 130. Accordingly, in the example shown in (a) of FIG. 4, thecluster editing portion 12 generates the new cluster that contains theclusters shown by the cluster displays 130 “Kanagawa gakuen high school”and “Yokohama station”.

In (b) of FIG. 4, the cluster editing portion 12 generates the newcluster that contains the clusters shown by the above-described twocluster displays 130. It should be noted that the new cluster is acluster obtained by combining the original two clusters. At this time,the cluster editing portion 12 need not necessarily hold the informationabout the original two clusters in the cluster information 16, and mayreplace it with the information about the new cluster. Alternatively,the cluster editing portion 12 may hold the information about theoriginal two clusters in the cluster information 16, and may furthergenerate a new cluster as a higher level cluster of the original twoclusters. In this case, the new cluster and the original two clustershave a parent-child relationship in a tree structure, and information ofthe tree structure formed by these clusters is held in the clusterinformation 16.

Here, the cluster editing portion 12 provides the information about thegenerated new cluster to the display control portion 14, and the displaycontrol portion 14 causes the display portion 15 to display the clusterdisplay 130 that shows the new cluster. Here, in a similar way to theexample of the cluster generation, the display control portion 14 maymove the displayed map 100 or change the scale of the displayed map 100,in accordance with the cluster display 130 obtained after combining theclusters.

Further, the display control portion 14 may delete the cluster displays130 that show the original two clusters contained in the new cluster,from the display portion 15. By doing this, overlap between each of thecluster displays 130 can be inhibited, and visibility can be improved.In addition, it is possible to reduce the number of objects to bedisplayed on the display portion 15 by the display control portion 14,and highspeed display is achieved. Disappearance of the original clusterdisplays 130 and appearance of the new cluster display 130 may beperformed using animations such as fade-out and fade-in. By doing this,it is possible to visually show the user that the cluster combining isbeing performed.

On the other hand, when the information about the original clusters isheld in the cluster information 16, the display control portion 14 maycontinue to display, on the display portion 15, the cluster displays 130that show the original two clusters contained in the new cluster. Bydoing this, it is possible to visually show the user that the newcluster and the original two clusters have a parent-child relationship.

Further, the cluster editing portion 12 may provide the informationabout the generated cluster to the cluster name editing portion 13, andthe cluster name editing portion 13 may generate a cluster name for thegenerated cluster. Note that any technique can be used to generate thecluster name. In this case, the cluster name editing portion 13 providesinformation about the generated cluster name to the display controlportion 14, and the display control portion 14 displays the cluster namedisplay 140 in the vicinity of the corresponding cluster display 130. Inthe example shown in (b) of FIG. 4, the cluster name “Nishi ward,Kanagawa ward” is generated and displayed on the display portion 15, asthe cluster name display 140. Of course, the cluster name need not belimited to Japanese geographical annotations, but may also be any othersuitable breakdown depending on the venue. For example, the US, aneighborhood, town, county, state, country nomenclature may be moresuitable.

(Division of Cluster)

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a first example in which the cluster isdivided in the first embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 5 showsstates before and after the cluster is divided.

In the first example, the cluster is divided using the information aboutthe cluster tree structure held in the cluster information 16. Morespecifically, the cluster is divided by changing the cluster displayedas the cluster display 130 from a parent cluster to child clusters inthe tree structure.

In (a) of FIG. 5, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the map 100, the cluster displays 130 and thecluster name displays 140. The operation acquisition portion 11 acquiresthe trajectory 120. The operation acquisition portion 11 providesinformation about the trajectory 120 to the cluster editing portion 12and the display control portion 14. The display control portion 14causes the display portion 15 to display the trajectory 120 as shown in(a) of FIG. 5. Also in this case, in a similar way to the example of thecluster generation, the operation acquisition portion 11 may enter thecluster editing mode from the normal mode in response to a user's touchon the specific section of the display portion 15, and may acquire thetrajectory 120.

In the example shown in (a) of FIG. 5, the trajectory 120 traverses thecluster display 130. When the trajectory 120 traverses the clusterdisplay 130 in this manner (e.g., shown a bisecting the larger cluster130), the cluster editing portion 12 divides the cluster shown by thetraversed cluster display 130. Accordingly, in the example shown in (a)of FIG. 5, the cluster editing portion 12 divides the cluster shown bythe cluster display 130 “Nishi ward, Kanagawa ward”.

In (b) of FIG. 5, the cluster editing portion 12 divides the clustershown by the above-described cluster display 130 into two clusters. Asdescribed above, the two clusters after the division are lower levelclusters of the original cluster in the tree structure. The clusterediting portion 12 provides information about the divided clusters tothe display control portion 14, and the display control portion 14causes the display portion 15 to display the cluster displays 130showing the divided clusters. At this time, the display control portion14 deletes the cluster display 130 showing the cluster before thedivision, from the display portion 15. Here, the appearance anddisappearance of the cluster display 130 may be displayed usinganimations such as fade-in and fade-out. By doing this, it is possibleto visually show the user that the cluster division is being performed.

Further, the display control portion 14 may move the displayed map 100in response to the division of the cluster. For example, the displaycontrol portion 14 matches the center of the map 100 with the center ofthe cluster display 130 before the division.

Further, the display control portion 14 may change the scale of thedisplayed map 100 in response to the division of the cluster. Forexample, the display control portion 14 displays the map 100 at amaximum scale under the condition that the diameter of the clusterdisplay 130 before the division is smaller than the short side of themap 100.

On the other hand, the cluster editing portion 12 may provide theinformation about the divided clusters to the cluster name editingportion 13, and the cluster name editing portion 13 may generate clusternames for the divided clusters. Note that any known technique can beused to generate the cluster names. In this case, the cluster nameediting portion 13 provides information about the generated clusternames to the display control portion 14, and the display control portion14 displays each of the cluster name displays 140 in the vicinity of thecorresponding cluster display 130. When the cluster names are held inthe cluster information 16 together with the information about thecluster tree structure, the cluster name editing portion 13 need notnecessarily generate new cluster names, and the cluster names held inthe cluster information 16 may be provided to the display controlportion 14.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a second example in which the cluster isdivided in the first embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 6 showsstates before and after the cluster is divided.

In the second example, in a similar way to the first example, thecluster is divided using the information about the cluster treestructure held in the cluster information 16. However, the secondexample is different from the first example in that the clusters afterthe division are selected by the user from child clusters of the treestructure.

In (a) of FIG. 6, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the map 100, the cluster displays 130, sub-clusterdisplays 135, the cluster name displays 140 and sub-cluster namedisplays 145. The sub-cluster displays 135 are one type of the clusterdisplay 130, and are used to display child clusters when the clustershown by the cluster display 130 is the parent cluster. The sub-clustername displays 145 are displays that show cluster names of the clustersshown by the sub-cluster displays 135.

On the other hand, the operation acquisition portion 11 acquires thetrajectory 120.

The operation acquisition portion 11 provides information about thetrajectory 120 to the cluster editing portion 12 and the display controlportion 14. The display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15to display the trajectory 120 as shown in (a) of FIG. 6. Also in thiscase, in a similar way to the example of the cluster generation, theoperation acquisition portion 11 may enter the cluster editing mode fromthe normal mode in response to a user's touch on the specific section ofthe display portion 15, and may acquire the trajectory 120.

In the example shown in (a) of FIG. 6, the trajectory 120 traverses thecluster display 130. When the trajectory 120 traverses the clusterdisplay 130 in this manner, the cluster editing portion 12 divides thecluster shown by the traversed cluster display 130.

Further, in the example shown in (a) of FIG. 6, the trajectory 120classifies the three sub-cluster displays 135 contained in the clustershown by the cluster display 130 “Nishi ward, Kanagawa ward”, into thesub-cluster displays 135 “Kita-karuizawa” and “Minami-karuizawa”, andthe sub-cluster display 135 “Kanagawa gakuen high school”. In this typeof case, the cluster editing portion 12 divides the cluster shown by thecluster display 130, in accordance with the classification of theplurality of sub-cluster displays 135 classified by the trajectory 120.

In (b) of FIG. 6, the cluster editing portion 12 divides the clustershown by the above-described cluster display 130 into two clusters. Asdescribed above, these clusters are generated from lower level clustersof the original cluster in the cluster tree structure, in accordancewith the classification of the sub-cluster displays 135 classified bythe trajectory 120. The cluster editing portion 12 provides informationabout the divided clusters to the display control portion 14, and thedisplay control portion 14 causes the display portion 15 to display thecluster displays 130 showing the divided clusters.

More specifically, the cluster editing portion 12 divides the clusterthat is shown in (a) of FIG. 6 by the cluster display 130 “Nishi ward,Kanagawa ward” into the clusters that are shown in (b) of FIG. 6 by thecluster displays 130 “Kita-karuizawa and Minami-karuizawa” and “Kanagawagakuen high school”. Among them, the cluster “Kanagawa Gakuen highschool” corresponds to the sub-cluster that is shown in (a) of FIG. 6 bythe sub-cluster display 135 having the same name. On the other hand, thecluster “Kita-karuizawa and Minami-karuizawa” is the cluster obtained bycombining the two sub-clusters that are shown in (a) of FIG. 6 by thesub-cluster displays 135 “Kita-karuizawa” and “Minami-karuizawa”.

In this way, when the cluster after the division is a cluster obtainedby combining a plurality of sub-clusters, for example, the clusterediting portion 12 may generate cluster information after the divisionby adding a node to the cluster tree structure. In this case, a new node“Kita-karuizawa and Minami-karuizawa” can be added between the node“Nishi ward, Kanagawa ward” and the nodes “Kita-karuizawa” and“Minami-karuizawa” in the tree structure.

Further, for example, the cluster editing portion 12 may generate thecluster information after the division by changing nodes of the clustertree structure. In this case, the nodes “Kita-karuizawa” and“Minami-karuizawa” of the tree structure can be combined and replaced bythe new node “Kita-karuizawa and Minami-karuizawa”.

On the other hand, at this time, the display control portion 14 deletesthe cluster display 130 showing the cluster before the division, fromthe display portion 15. Also in this case, in a similar way to the firstexample, the appearance and disappearance of the cluster display 130 maybe performed using animations. Further, the display control portion 14may move the displayed map 100 or change the scale of the displayed map100 in accordance with the cluster division.

In addition, in a similar way to the first example, the cluster editingportion 12 may provide the information about the divided clusters to thecluster name editing portion 13, and the cluster name editing portion 13may generate cluster names for the divided clusters. The generatedcluster names are provided to the display control portion 14 and thedisplay control portion 14 can display on the display portion 15 thecluster names as the cluster name displays 140.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a third example in which the cluster isdivided in the first embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 7 showsstates before and after the cluster is divided.

In the third example, unlike the first example and the second example,the cluster need not necessarily have a tree structure.

In (a) of FIG. 7, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the map 100, the image icons 110, the clusterdisplay 130 and the cluster name display 140. The operation acquisitionportion 11 acquires the trajectory 120. The operation acquisitionportion 11 provides information about the trajectory 120 to the clusterediting portion 12 and the display control portion 14. The displaycontrol portion 14 causes the display portion 15 to display thetrajectory 120 as shown in (a) of FIG. 7. Also in this case, in asimilar way to the example of the cluster generation, the operationacquisition portion 11 may enter the cluster editing mode from thenormal mode in response to a user's touch on the specific section of thedisplay portion 15, and may acquire the trajectory 120.

In the example shown in (a) of FIG. 7, the trajectory 120 traverses thecluster display 130. When the trajectory 120 traverses the clusterdisplay 130 in this manner, the cluster editing portion 12 divides thecluster shown by the traversed cluster display 130.

Further, in the example shown in (a) of FIG. 7, the trajectory 120classifies the image icons 110 contained in the cluster shown by thecluster display 130 into image icons 110 a and image icons 110 b. Inthis type of case, the cluster editing portion 12 divides the clustershown by the cluster display 130, in accordance with the classificationof the image icons 110 classified by the trajectory 120.

In (b) of FIG. 7, the cluster editing portion 12 divides the clustershown by the above-described cluster display 130 into two clusters.Theses clusters are clusters that respectively contain image contentitems indicated by the image icons 110 a and the image icons 110 bclassified by the trajectory 120. The cluster editing portion 12provides information about the divided clusters to the display controlportion 14, and the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the cluster displays 130 that show the dividedclusters.

At this time, the display control portion 14 deletes the cluster display130 showing the cluster before the division, from the display portion15. The image icons 110 may continue to be displayed in order toindicate the image content items contained in the cluster shown by eachof the cluster displays 130. Alternatively, the image icons 110 may beremoved in order to improve visibility and increase display speed.

Also in this case, in a similar way to the first example, the appearanceand disappearance of the cluster display 130 may be performed usinganimations. Further, the display control portion 14 may move thedisplayed map 100 or change the scale of the displayed map 100 inaccordance with the cluster division.

(Deletion of Cluster)

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster is deletedin the first embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 8 shows statesbefore and after the cluster is deleted.

In (a) of FIG. 8, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the map 100, the cluster displays 130 and thecluster name displays 140. The operation acquisition portion 11 acquiresthe trajectory 120. The operation acquisition portion 11 providesinformation about the trajectory 120 to the cluster editing portion 12and the display control portion 14. The display control portion 14causes the display portion 15 to display the trajectory 120 as shown in(a) of FIG. 8. Also in this case, in a similar way to the example of thecluster generation, the operation acquisition portion 11 may enter thecluster editing mode from the normal mode in response to a user's touchon the specific section of the display portion 15, and may acquire thetrajectory 120.

In the example shown in (a) of FIG. 8, the trajectory 120 traverses thecluster display 130 four times. When the trajectory 120 traverses thecluster display 130 a plurality of times (e.g., a predetermined pattern)in this way, the cluster editing portion 12 deletes the cluster shown bythe traversed cluster display 130.

In the present embodiment, both the cluster division and the clusterdeletion are performed when the trajectory 120 traverses the clusterdisplay 130. The movement that traverses the cluster display 130, whichis performed by the user using the trajectory of a pointing operation,is movement that intuitively evokes both the division and the deletionof the cluster. Therefore, it is desirable that, while the trajectory120 traversing the cluster display 130 is used as a trigger for both thedivision and the deletion of the cluster, it is determined whether thecluster is to be divided or the cluster is to be deleted, based on somekind of standard that feels natural to the user.

Given this, the cluster editing portion 12 determines whether thecluster is to be divided or the cluster is to be deleted, based on thenumber of times the trajectory 120 traverses the cluster display 130.More specifically, when the trajectory 120 traverses the cluster display130 once, the cluster editing portion 12 divides the cluster. On theother hand, when the trajectory 120 traverses the cluster display 130 aplurality of times, the cluster editing portion 12 deletes the cluster.At this time, the cluster editing portion 12 may delete the imagecontent items contained in the deleted cluster, together with thecluster. In this case, the above-described determination based on thenumber of times traversing is performed may include a determination asto whether only the cluster is to be deleted or the cluster and theimage content items are to be deleted together. For example, when thetrajectory 120 traverses the cluster display 130 two or three times, thecluster editing portion 12 may delete only the cluster, and when thetrajectory 120 traverses the cluster display 130 four or more times, thecluster editing portion 12 may delete the cluster and the image contentitems contained in the cluster.

Note that the number of times that is used as the standard fordetermination is not limited to the above-described example. Forexample, as in the second example and the third example of the clusterdivision, when the cluster is divided by the trajectory 120 classifyingthe sub-cluster displays 135 and the image icons 110 contained in thecluster display 130, it is likely to be necessary for the trajectory 120to have a complicated shape in order to allow classification. Therefore,a larger number of times may be used as the standard for determination.Further, in order to inhibit the cluster from being deleted by anerroneous operation, the trajectory 120 may have to traverse the clusterdisplay 130 three times or more, for example, before the cluster can bedeleted.

In (b) of FIG. 8, the cluster editing portion 12 deletes the clustershown by the above-described cluster display 130. The image contentitems classified into the deleted cluster are currently not classifiedby the cluster. The cluster editing portion 12 provides the displaycontrol portion 14 with information about the deleted cluster and theimage content items classified into the deleted cluster. The displaycontrol portion 14 deletes the cluster display 130 showing the deletedcluster from the display portion 15. At the same time, the displaycontrol portion 14 causes the display portion 15 to display the imageicons 110 indicating the image content items classified into the deletedcluster.

Here, the disappearance of the cluster display 130 and the appearance ofthe image icons 110 may be performed using animations such as fade-inand fade-out, in a similar way to the above-described examples of thecluster division. The display control portion 14 may move the displayedmap 100 in response to the deletion of the cluster. For example, thedisplay control portion 14 may match the center of the map 100 with thecenter of the cluster display 130 before the deletion.

Further, the display control portion 14 may change the scale of thedisplayed map 100 in response to the deletion of the cluster. Forexample, the display control portion 14 may display the map 100 at themaximum scale under the condition that the diameter of the clusterdisplay 130 before the deletion can fit within the short side of the map100.

In this way, in the present embodiment, information about the user'soperation on the cluster display 130 can be acquired as the trajectory120 of the pointing operation, and various types of cluster editing canbe performed depending on the shape of the trajectory 120. Thus, theuser can add various types of editing to the cluster displayed as thecluster display 130, by performing an intuitive operation.

2. Second Embodiment

Next, a second embodiment of the present disclosure will be explainedwith reference to FIG. 9 to FIG. 13. In the second embodiment of thepresent disclosure, a user's operation, information about which isacquired by the operation acquisition portion 11, and cluster editingthat is performed by the cluster editing portion 12 are different fromthose of the above-described first embodiment. However, the otherprocessing is similar to that in the first embodiment and thus adetailed explanation thereof is omitted.

(Combining of Clusters by Movement of Cluster Display)

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example in which clusters are combined bymovement of a cluster display in the second embodiment of the presentdisclosure. FIG. 9 shows a process in which the clusters are combined.

In (a) of FIG. 9, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the map 100 and the cluster displays 130. Theoperation acquisition portion 11 acquires information about an operationthat the user uses to move a cluster display 130 b toward a clusterdisplay 130 a. Here, the operation that the user moves the clusterdisplay 130 is, for example, a drag operation or a flick operation withrespect to the region of the cluster display 130. The operationacquisition portion 11 provides information about the above-describedoperation to the cluster editing portion 12 and the display controlportion 14. In accordance with the information about this operation, thedisplay control portion 14 moves the cluster display 130 b toward thecluster display 130 a and displays it.

In (b) of FIG. 9, the display control portion 14 displays the clusterdisplay 130 b such that the cluster display 130 b overlaps with thecluster display 130 a, as a result of the movement by the user'soperation. For example, when the operation acquisition portion 11acquires information about a drag operation performed on the touch panelby the user, the user continues to touch the cluster display 130 b asshown in (b) of FIG. 9. Further, for example, when the operationacquisition portion 11 acquires information about a flick operationperformed on the touch panel by the user, the user's touch on thecluster display 130 b may be released at this point in time.

In the example shown in (b) of FIG. 9, when the cluster display 130 boverlaps with the cluster display 130 a as a result of the movement bythe user's operation, the cluster editing portion 12 combines theclusters shown by the cluster display 130 a and the cluster display 130b.

For example, when the operation acquisition portion 11 acquiresinformation about a drag operation performed on the touch panel by theuser, at a point in time at which the user's drag operation is releasedin a state where the plurality of cluster displays 130 overlap with eachother as shown in (b) FIG. 9, the cluster editing portion 12 maydetermine that the clusters shown by the plurality of cluster displays130 are to be combined.

Further, for example, when the operation acquisition portion 11 acquiresinformation about the flick operation performed on the touch panel bythe user, at a point in time at which the plurality of cluster displays130 overlap with each other, the cluster editing portion 12 maydetermine that the clusters shown by the plurality of cluster displays130 are to be combined.

As shown in (b) of FIG. 9, when the cluster display 130 b overlaps withthe cluster display 130 a, the display control portion 14 may change thedisplay of both or one of the cluster display 130 a and the clusterdisplay 130 b. For example, the display control portion 14 may change adisplay color of the cluster display 130 a and the cluster display 130 bas shown in (b) of FIG. 9. By doing this, it is possible to visuallyshow the user that the cluster combining is performed by overlapping thecluster display 130 a and the cluster display 130 b.

In (c) of FIG. 9, the cluster editing portion 12 generates a cluster bycombining the clusters shown by the cluster display 130 a and thecluster display 130 b. This cluster is expressed on the map 100 as acluster display 130 c that circumscribes the cluster display 130 a andthe cluster display 130 b. The cluster editing portion 12 providesinformation about the generated cluster to the display control portion14, and the display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15 todisplay the cluster display 130 c. Here, in a similar way to theabove-described example of the first embodiment, the display controlportion 14 may move the displayed map 100 or change the scale of thedisplayed map 100 in accordance with the cluster display 130 c.

When moving from displaying (b) to (c) of FIG. 9, the display controlportion 14 may display an animation. The animation can be displayed suchthat, for example, the cluster display 130 b moved by the user'soperation is faded out while the cluster display 130 a, which is acombining target, is enlarged and moved and is thereby changed to thecluster display 130 c after the combining. With this type of animation,it is possible to visually show the user that the cluster combining isbeing performed.

(Combining of Clusters by Pinch Operation)

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example in which the clusters arecombined by a pinch operation in the second embodiment of the presentdisclosure. FIG. 10 shows a process in which the clusters are combined.

In (a) of FIG. 10, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the map 100 and the cluster displays 130. Theoperation acquisition portion 11 acquires information about a pinch-inoperation performed by the user on the cluster display 130 a and thecluster display 130 b. Here, the term “pinch-in” indicates an operationin which the user touches two points on the display portion 15 with twofingers and moves the two fingers such that the two points approach oneanother. On the other hand, an operation in which the user touches twopoints on the display portion 15 with two fingers and moves the twofingers such that the two points are separated from each other isreferred to as pinch-out. In this specification, the pinch-in andpinch-out operations are collectively referred to as a pinch operation.The operation acquisition portion 11 provides information about theabove-described pinch-in operation to the cluster editing portion 12 andthe display control portion 14. In accordance with the information aboutthis operation, the display control portion 14 moves the cluster display130 a and the cluster display 130 b closer to each other and displaysthem. The cluster display 130 a and the cluster display 130 b are movedas a result of the pinch operation. Therefore, it can also be said thatthe pinch operation is an operation to move the cluster displays 130.

In (b) of FIG. 10, the display control portion 14 overlaps and displaysthe cluster display 130 a and the cluster display 130 b as a result ofthe movement by the user's operation. At this point in time, the user'stouch on the cluster display 130 a and the cluster display 130 b may becontinued, or it may have already been released.

In the example shown in (b) of FIG. 10, when the cluster display 130 aand the cluster display 130 b overlap with each other as a result of themovement by the user's operation, the cluster editing portion 12combines the clusters shown by the cluster display 130 a and the clusterdisplay 130 b.

When the cluster display 130 a and the cluster display 130 b overlapwith each other, the cluster editing portion 12 may determine that theclusters shown by the cluster display 130 a and the cluster display 130b are to be combined, regardless of whether the user is continuing totouch the cluster display 130 a and the cluster display 130 b.

When the user's touch on the cluster display 130 a and the clusterdisplay 130 b is released in a state where the cluster display 130 a andthe cluster display 130 b overlap with each other, the cluster editingportion 12 may determine that the clusters shown by the cluster display130 a and the cluster display 130 b are to be combined.

As shown in (b) of FIG. 10, when the cluster display 130 b overlaps withthe cluster display 130 a, the display control portion 14 may change thedisplay of both or one of the cluster display 130 a and the clusterdisplay 130 b. For example, the display control portion 14 may changethe display color of the cluster display 130 a and the cluster display130 b as shown in (b) of FIG. 10. By doing this, it is possible tovisually show the user that the cluster combining is performed byoverlapping the cluster display 130 a and the cluster display 130 b.

In (c) of FIG. 10, the cluster editing portion 12 generates a cluster bycombining the clusters shown by the cluster display 130 a and thecluster display 130 b. This cluster is expressed on the map 100 as thecluster display 130 c that circumscribes the cluster display 130 a andthe cluster display 130 b. The cluster editing portion 12 providesinformation about the generated cluster to the display control portion14, and the display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15 todisplay the cluster display 130 c. Here, in a similar way to theabove-described example of the first embodiment, the display controlportion 14 may move the displayed map 100 or change the scale of thedisplayed map 100 in accordance with the cluster display 130 c.

When moving from displaying (b) to (c) of FIG. 10, the display controlportion 14 may display an animation. The animation can be displayed suchthat, for example, the cluster display 130 a and the cluster display 130b are faded out while they are enlarged, and at the same time, thecluster display 130 c after the combining is faded in. With this type ofanimation, it is possible to visually show the user that the clustercombining is being performed.

(Division of Cluster by Pinch Operation)

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster is dividedby a pinch operation in the second embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 11 shows a process in which the cluster is divided.

In (a) and (b) of FIG. 11, the display control portion 14 causes thedisplay portion 15 to display the map 100 and the cluster display 130.The operation acquisition portion 11 acquires information about apinch-in or pinch-out operation that is performed by the user on thecluster display 130. The operation acquisition portion 11 providesinformation about the pinch-in or pinch-out operation to the clusterediting portion 12 and the display control portion 14. In accordancewith the information about this operation, the display control portion14 compresses or elongates the cluster display 130 and displays it.

In the example shown in (a) and (b) of FIG. 11, when the cluster display130 is compressed or elongated at a ratio exceeding a predeterminedratio by the pinch operation performed by the user, the cluster editingportion 12 may divide the cluster shown by the cluster display 130.Further, the cluster editing portion 12 may divide the cluster shown bythe cluster display 130 when the compression or elongation of thecluster display 130 due to the user's pinch operation is repeated atleast a predetermined number of times.

Further, the cluster editing portion 12 may change how much the clusteris divided up in accordance with a speed of the pinch operationperformed by the user. In the present embodiment, the cluster is dividedusing the information of the tree structure held in the clusterinformation 16. More specifically, the division of the cluster isperformed such that the cluster displayed as the cluster display 130 ischanged from a higher level cluster to a lower level cluster in the treestructure. At this time, how much the cluster is divided up isdetermined based on how far the cluster is to be displayed below theoriginal cluster.

As an example, let us consider a case in which the cluster to bedisplayed is changed from the original cluster to a child cluster thathas the original cluster as a parent, namely, a case in which theoriginal cluster is changed to a directly lower cluster, and a case inwhich the original cluster is changed to a grandchild cluster, namely, acase in which the original cluster is changed to a two-level lowercluster. In this case, the grandchild cluster is a cluster that isdivided up more than the child cluster. Therefore, it will be apparentthat the child cluster is divided up relatively less while thegrandchild cluster is divided up more.

In the example shown in (a) and (b) of FIG. 11, when the speed of thepinch operation performed by the user does not exceed a predeterminedthreshold value, the cluster editing portion 12 divides up the clusterrelatively less. An example of this case is shown in (c) and (d) of FIG.11. On the other hand, when the speed of the pinch operation performedby the user exceeds the predetermined threshold value, the clusterediting portion 12 divides up the cluster relatively more. An example ofthis case is shown in (e) and (f) of FIG. 11.

In (c) of FIG. 11, the cluster editing portion 12 notifies the displaycontrol portion 14 that the cluster is to be divided, and the displaycontrol portion 14 causes the display portion 15 to display an effectdisplay 150 a that shows that the cluster is to be divided up. In thecase of (c) of FIG. 11, the cluster is divided up relatively less by arelatively slow pinch operation. Therefore, the effect display 150 a isrelatively small and can be displayed with a calm animation. In theexample shown in (c) of FIG. 11, the effect display 150 a is displayedas an animation of a bubble popping.

In (d) of FIG. 11, the cluster editing portion 12 divides up the clustershown by the above-described cluster display 130 into the sub-clustersshown by the sub-cluster displays 135. These sub-clusters are lowerlevel clusters of the cluster shown by the cluster display 130 in thetree structure. The cluster editing portion 12 provides informationabout the sub-clusters after the division to the display control portion14, and the display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15 todisplay the sub-cluster displays 135 that show the sub-clusters. In theexample shown in (d) of FIG. 11, the display control portion 14 causesthe display portion 15 to display three sub-cluster displays 135 a. Atthis time, in a similar way to the example of the above-described firstembodiment, the display control portion 14 may move the displayed map100 or change the scale of the map 100 in accordance with the clusterdivision.

When moving from displaying (c) to (d) of FIG. 11, the display controlportion 14 may display an animation. The animation can be displayed suchthat, for example, the effect display 150 a is faded out, and at thesame time, the sub-cluster displays 135 a are faded in. With this typeof animation, it is possible to visually show the user that the clustercombining is being performed.

In (e) of FIG. 11, in a similar way to (c) of FIG. 11, the displaycontrol portion 14 causes the display portion 15 to display an effectdisplay 150 b that shows that the cluster is to be divided up. In thecase of (e) of FIG. 11, the cluster is divided up relatively more by arelatively fast pinch operation. Therefore, the effect display 150 b isrelatively large and can be displayed with an animation having a strongimpact. In the example shown in (e) of FIG. 11, the effect display 150 bis displayed as an animation of a bubble exploding.

In (f) of FIG. 11, in a similar way to (d) of FIG. 11, the clusterediting portion 12 divides the cluster into sub-clusters and the displaycontrol portion 14 causes the display portion 15 to display thesub-cluster displays 135. In the example shown in (f) of FIG. 11, thedisplay control portion 14 causes the display portion 15 to displayseven sub-cluster displays 135 b. The sub-clusters shown by thesub-cluster displays 135 b are clusters whose level in the cluster treestructure is lower than that of the clusters shown by the sub-clusterdisplays 135 a. At this time, in a similar way to the example of (c) ofFIG. 11, the display control portion 14 may move the displayed map 100or change the scale of the displayed map 100 in accordance with thecluster division. Moreover, in transition of the display from (e) to(f), the display control portion 14 may display an animation similar tothat used in the transition of the display from (c) to (d).

(Change of Cluster Hierarchy by Expanding and Contracting Operation)

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example in which the hierarchy of thecluster display is changed by an expanding and contracting operation inthe second embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 12 shows a processin which the hierarchy of the cluster display is changed.

In (a) of FIG. 12, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the map 100 and the cluster display 130.

In (b) of FIG. 12, the operation acquisition portion 11 acquiresinformation about a pinch-in operation that is performed on a givensection of the display portion 15 by the user. The operation acquisitionportion 11 provides the information about this pinch-in operation to thecluster editing portion 12. In response to the information about thepinch-in operation, the cluster editing portion 12 acquires informationabout the subclusters, which are lower level clusters of the clustershown by the cluster display 130, from the information of the clustertree structure held in the cluster information 16, and provides theacquired information to the display control portion 14. The displaycontrol portion 14 causes the display portion 15 to display, in place ofthe cluster display 130, the three sub-cluster displays 135 a that aredivided up more than the cluster display 130.

In (c) of FIG. 12, the operation acquisition portion 11 acquiresinformation about a pinch-in operation that is performed again on thegiven section of the display portion 15 by the user. The operationacquisition portion 11 provides the information about this pinch-inoperation to the cluster editing portion 12. In response to theinformation about the pinch-in operation performed again, the clusterediting portion 12 acquires information about the sub-clusters, whichare lower level clusters than the subclusters shown by the sub-clusterdisplays 135 a, from the information of the cluster tree structure heldin the cluster information 16, and provides the acquired information tothe display control portion 14. The display control portion 14 causesthe display portion 15 to display, in place of the sub-cluster displays135 a, the seven sub-cluster displays 135 b that are divided up evenmore than the sub-cluster displays 135 a.

When in the state shown in (c) of FIG. 12, if the user performs thepinch-out operation on the give section of the display 15 and theoperation acquisition portion 11 acquires information about thispinch-out operation, the cluster editing portion 12 performs reverseprocessing to that in the above-described example, and the display ofthe display portion 15 returns to the state shown in (b) of FIG. 12.Here, if the operation acquisition portion 11 further acquiresinformation about the pinch-out operation performed by the user on thegiven section of the display portion 15, the cluster editing portion 12performs reverse processing to that in the above-described example, andthe display of the display portion 15 returns to the state shown in (a)of FIG. 12.

Here, if the user intends to display a higher level cluster than thecluster shown by the cluster display 130, there are some cases when itis necessary to change the scale of the map 100 and as a result thedisplay becomes complicated. For that reason, the cluster editingportion 12 may be set to not change the cluster display 130 even wheninformation about the pinch-out operation is acquired by the operationacquisition portion 11 in the initially displayed state shown in (a) ofFIG. 12.

In this way, in the example shown in FIG. 12, the hierarchy of thedisplayed cluster in the tree structure is changed in response to thepinch-in and pinch-out operations performed by the user with respect tothe display of the display portion 15 including the cluster display 130.At this time, the scale of the map 100 displayed on the display portion15 is maintained.

Here, the pinch-in and pinch-out operations with respect to the displayof the display portion 15 are normally used to contract and expand thedisplay of the display portion 15. In other words, the pinch-in andpinch-out operations are operations to contract and expand the displayincluding the cluster display 130. In order to distinguish between acase in which this type of contracting and expanding operations are usedto contract and expand the display and a case in which this type ofcontracting and expanding operations are used to change the hierarchy ofthe cluster display 130, the operation acquisition portion 11 may be setto enter the cluster editing mode from the normal mode when theoperation acquisition portion 11 acquires information about apredetermined operation performed by the user.

In this case, for example, in the normal mode, the operation acquisitionportion 11 provides information about the pinch operation performed bythe user to the display control portion 14, and the display controlportion 14 changes the scale of the map 100 in response to theinformation about the pinch operation. On the other hand, in the clusterediting mode, as described above, the operation acquisition portion 11provides information about the pinch operation performed by the user tothe cluster editing portion 12, and the cluster editing portion 12provides information about the clusters in different hierarchies inresponse to the information about the pinch operation.

The predetermined operation for the operation acquisition portion 11 toenter the cluster editing mode from the normal mode can be a longpressing operation or a tapping operation on the cluster display 130,for example. Further, the predetermined operation can be an operation onan “editing start” button that is separately displayed, for example.Furthermore, the predetermined operation can be continuation of theuser's touch on the specific section of the display portion 15 in asimilar way to the first embodiment.

(Division of Cluster by Movement Operation)

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster is dividedby a movement operation in the second embodiment of the presentdisclosure. FIG. 13 shows a process in which the cluster is divided up.

In (a) of FIG. 13, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the map 100, the cluster display 130 and thesub-cluster displays 135 a. The operation acquisition portion 11acquires information about an operation that the user uses to move oneof the sub-cluster displays 135 a to the outside of the cluster display130. Here, the operation that the user uses to move the cluster display130 is, for example, a drag operation or a flick operation. Theoperation acquisition portion 11 provides information about theabove-described operation to the cluster editing portion 12 and thedisplay control portion 14. In accordance with the information aboutthis operation, the display control portion 14 moves one of thesub-cluster displays 135 a toward the outside of the cluster display 130and displays it.

Normally, in order to improve visibility of the cluster display 130, thesub-cluster displays 135 a need not necessarily be displayed. In thiscase, when the operation acquisition portion 11 acquires informationabout a predetermined operation performed by the user, the displaycontrol portion 14 may enter the cluster editing mode from the normalmode, and may display the sub-cluster displays 135 a. The operationacquisition portion 11 acquires, as the information about thepredetermined operation, for example, information about the duration ofpressing or tapping on the cluster display 130, an operation on the“editing start” button that is separately displayed, continuation of theuser's touch on the specific section of the display portion 15, or thelike.

In the example shown in (a) of FIG. 13, if the whole of the sub-clusterdisplay 135 a is moved to the outside of the cluster display 130 as aresult of the movement by the user's operation, the cluster editingportion 12 divides up the sub-cluster shown by the sub-cluster display135 a from the cluster shown by the cluster display 130, and changes thesub-cluster to a cluster in the same hierarchy.

In (b) of FIG. 13, the cluster editing portion 12 determines that thesub-cluster is to be divided from the cluster, and notifies the displaycontrol portion 14 that the cluster is to be divided up. When thedisplay control portion 14 receives the notification, the displaycontrol portion 14 causes the display portion 15 to display an animationindicating that the cluster is being divided up. For example, thedisplay control portion 14 reduces the size of the cluster display 130and changes the cluster display 130 to have the smallest shape that cancircumscribe the remaining two sub-cluster displays 135 a. Further, thedisplay control portion 14 moves the sub-cluster display 135 a, whichhas been moved to the outside of the cluster display 130, to theoriginal position. For example, when the sub-cluster display 135 a ismoved by a user's drag operation, this movement may be performed whenthe user's drag operation is released.

In (c) of FIG. 13, the cluster editing portion 12 divides thesub-cluster from the cluster and provides the display control portion 14with information about the cluster after the division. In accordancewith the provided information, the display control portion 14 causes thedisplay portion 15 to display the cluster displays 130 and thesub-cluster displays 135. In the example shown in (c) of FIG. 13, thedivided sub-cluster changes to a cluster in the same hierarchy as theoriginal cluster, and the two cluster displays 130 are displayed. Theremaining two sub-clusters 135 a are displayed on the inner side of thecluster display 130 that shows the original cluster. Further, thesub-cluster displays 135 b are displayed on the inner side of thecluster display 130 that shows the divided cluster. The sub-clusterdisplays 135 b show sub-clusters whose level is lower than that of thesub-clusters shown by the sub-cluster displays 135 a.

Here, for example, the display control portion 14 may be set to returnfrom the cluster editing mode to the normal mode, and to delete thesub-cluster displays 135 from the display portion 15, in accordance withan operation similar to the operation to switch the display controlportion 14 from the normal mode to the cluster editing mode. Further, ina similar way to the above-described example of the first embodiment,the display control portion 14 may move the displayed map 100 or maychange the scale of the displayed map 100 in accordance with the clusterdivision.

In this way, in the example shown in FIG. 13, in response to the user'soperation to move the sub-cluster display 135, the sub-cluster shown bythe sub-cluster display 135 is divided from the cluster shown by thecluster display 130 and is displayed as the new cluster display 130.Thus, with an intuitive operation, it is possible to divide thesub-cluster from the original cluster and change the sub-cluster to acluster having the same hierarchy as the original cluster.

Note that, as described above, in the present embodiment, a user'soperation that is different from that of the first embodiment is used toedit the cluster and cluster editing is also different from that of thefirst embodiment. Therefore, the present embodiment can be achieved incombination with the first embodiment. In this case, the cluster editingportion 12 performs cluster generation, combining, division, deletion orthe like, in accordance with the trajectory 120 of the user's pointingoperation that is acquired by the operation acquisition portion 11 inthe cluster editing mode, and the cluster editing portion 120 alsoperforms cluster combining, division or the like, in accordance with adrag, flick or pinch operation etc. on the cluster display 130,information about which is acquired by the operation acquisition portion11.

3. Third Embodiment

Next, a third embodiment of the present disclosure will be explainedwith reference to FIG. 14 to FIG. 18. The third embodiment of thepresent disclosure is different from the above-described first andsecond embodiments in terms of how the display control portion 14displays cluster related information. However, the other processing isthe same as that of the first and second embodiments, and thus adetailed explanation thereof is omitted.

(Display of Clusters as Nodes of Tree Structure)

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example in which clusters are displayedas nodes of a tree structure in the third embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

In FIG. 14, the display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15to display the map 100, the cluster displays 130, the cluster namedisplay 140, and a tree structure display 160. The tree structuredisplay 160 shows a tree structure of the clusters including the clustershown by the cluster displays 130. The tree structure display 160 showseach of the clusters using nodes 161. Note that the nodes 161 are alsodisplays used to show the clusters, and therefore it is apparent thatthe nodes 161 are one type of cluster display. A link is displayedbetween the nodes 161 and indicates a parent-child relationship in thetree structure.

At this time, nodes 161 a corresponding to the clusters displayed as thecluster displays 130 on the map 100 can be displayed with a differentcolor from other nodes 161 b. In the example shown in FIG. 14, theclusters “Home” and “Neighborhood” are displayed as the cluster displays130 on the map 100. Therefore, the nodes 161 a showing the clusters“Home” and “Neighborhood” are displayed with a different color from theother nodes 161 b.

In this way, in the present embodiment, in addition to the clusterdisplay using the cluster displays 130 on the map 100, the clusterdisplay using the nodes 161 on the tree structure display 160 is alsoprovided to the user. Thus, in a visually understandable manner, it ispossible to provide the user with information about the entire clustersincluded in the tree structure, as well as information about theclusters that are displayed as the cluster displays 130.

In the example shown in FIG. 14, each of the nodes 161 may be selectedby a touch operation, a tapping operation or the like performed by theuser, information about which is acquired by the operation acquisitionportion 11. Here, if the operation acquisition portion 11 acquiresinformation about an operation that selects one of the nodes 161, thedisplay control portion 14 changes the display of the map 100 so thatthe cluster display 130 of the cluster shown by the selected node 161 isdisplayed. For example, the display control portion 14 may performadjustment by moving the displayed map 100 or changing the scale of thedisplayed map 100 so that the target cluster display 130 is displayed inan appropriate size and in an appropriate position, such as in thevicinity of the center of the map 100. In accordance with a change ofthe cluster displayed as the cluster display 130, the node 161 that isdisplayed as the node 161 a with a different color from the other nodes161 also changes.

(Display of Movement Between Nodes of Tree Structure)

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of movement betweenclusters that are displayed as nodes of a tree structure in the thirdembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 15 shows a group of the nodes 161 indicating the cluster treestructure. In the example shown in FIG. 15, “Japan” is set as a rootnode, and the tree structure of the nodes 161 is developed usinghierarchies, such as the metropolis and prefectures, municipalities, andthe like.

As described above, in the present embodiment, it is possible to selectthe cluster to be displayed as the cluster display 130 on the map 100,from among the clusters displayed as the nodes 161 on the tree structuredisplay 160. In response to this selection, the display control portion14 moves the displayed map 100 or changes the scale of the displayed map100, for example, and thereby changes the cluster display 130 to bedisplayed. Movement of the map 100 or changing of the scale of the map100 performed in this type of case is hereinafter referred to astransition of the display of the map 100.

In the example shown in FIG. 15, the cluster to be displayed is changedfrom the cluster displayed by the node 161 “Osaki” to the clusterdisplayed by the node 161 “Nakafurano town”. At this time, the displaycontrol portion 14 causes the transition of the display of the map 100such that, in the cluster tree structure, the clusters on the path fromthe cluster before the change to the cluster after the change aresequentially displayed as the cluster displays 130 on the displayportion 15.

This type of transition of the display will be specifically explainedusing the example shown in FIG. 15. First, the display control portion14 causes the display portion 15 to display the cluster of the node 161“Osaki” as the cluster display 130. Next, the display control portion 14causes the display portion 15 to display, as the cluster display 130,the cluster of the node 161 “Shinagawa ward” that is a higher level nodeof “Osaki”. Further, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display, as the cluster display 130, the cluster of thenode 161 “Tokyo Metropolis” that is a higher level node of “Shinagawaward”. In this way, when a higher level of the node 161 is displayed asthe cluster display 130, the display control portion 14 reduces thescale of the map 100 (zooms out). Further, the display control portion14 may move the map 100 so that the cluster display 130 that is newlydisplayed is displayed in an appropriate position, such as in thevicinity of the center of the map 100.

Here, a common top level node of the node 161 “Osaki” and the node 161“Nakafurano town” is the node 161 “Japan”. Therefore, until the clusterof the node 161 “Japan” is displayed as the cluster display 130 on thedisplay portion 15, the display control portion 14 continues thetransition of the display of the map 100 to display the cluster of ahigher level of the node 161 as the cluster display 130.

After the cluster of the node 161 “Japan” has been displayed as thecluster display 130 on the display portion 15, the display controlportion 14 changes the display such that the clusters of the lower levelnodes 161 are sequentially displayed as the cluster displays 130.Specifically, the display control portion 14 causes the display portion15 to display the cluster of the node 161 “Hokkaido” as the clusterdisplay 130. Next, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display, as the cluster display 130, the cluster of thenode 161 “Sorachi county” that is a lower level node of “Hokkaido”.Further, the display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15 todisplay, as the cluster display 130, the cluster of the target node 161“Nakafurano town” that is a lower level node of “Sorachi county”.

In the above-described example, if the transition of the display of themap 100 is not easily seen because of a space between the hierarchies ofthe nodes 161, the display control portion 14 may interpolate anotherdisplay of the map 100 between the display of a parent node and thedisplay of a child node. For example, between the display of the map 100when the cluster of the node 161 “Shinagawa ward” is displayed as thecluster display 130 and the display of the map 100 when the cluster ofthe node 161 “Tokyo Metropolis” is displayed as the cluster display 130,if at least one of the scale and the position differs significantly froma range in which the user feels that he/she can easily see the displays,the display control portion 14 interpolates another display of the map100 between these displays.

Note that the position of the map 100 to be interpolated can be obtainedby linear interpolation based on the position of the map 100 when theparent node is displayed and the position of the map 100 when the childnode is displayed. Further, the scale of the map 100 to be interpolatedmay be obtained by linear interpolation based on the scale of the map100 used to display the parent node and the scale of the map 100 used todisplay the child node. Alternatively, the scale of the map 100 to beinterpolated may be set based on a predetermined zoom level.

The predetermined zoom level is a zoom level that is set in advance inthe display control portion 14 in order to display the map 100. Thepredetermined zoom level will be explained using an example in which amaximum scale of the display is set at a zoom level “0” and the zoomlevel increases as the scale reduces. In this example, the zoom levelused to display the cluster of the node 161 “Osaki” is “18”, and thezoom level used to display the cluster of the node 161 “Shinagawa ward”,which is a higher level node of the node 161 “Osaki”, is “17”. In thiscase, the display control portion 14 changes the display from “Osaki” to“Shinagawa ward” without interpolating the display of the map 100. Onthe other hand, the zoom level used to display the cluster of the node161 “Tokyo Metropolis”, which is a higher level node of the node 161“Shinagawa ward”, is “15”. In this case, if the display control portion14 directly changes the display from “Shinagawa ward” to “TokyoMetropolis”, the zoom level jumps from “17” to “15” and the transitionof the display may give the user an abrupt impression. To address this,the display control portion 14 interpolates the display of the map 100with the zoom level “16” between these displays. The center position ofthe display of the map 100 to be interpolated can be obtained by linearinterpolation based on the center position of the map 100 when“Shinagawa ward” is displayed and the center position of the map 100when “Tokyo Metropolis” is displayed. Further, the zoom level used todisplay the cluster of the node 161 “Sorachi county” is “15”, and thezoom level used to display the node 161 “Nakafurano town”, which is alower level node of the node 161 “Sorachi county”, is “19”. In thiscase, the display control portion 14 interpolates the displays of themap 100, whose zoom levels are “16”, “17” and “18”, between thesedisplays. In this way, a plurality of displays of the map 100 may beinterpolated by the display control portion 14.

With the displays described above, it is possible to visually show theuser how the clusters, which are displayed as the cluster displays 130on the map 100, are changing. Note that, in order to more visually showthe change of the displayed clusters, the display control portion 14may, for example, display the nodes 161 corresponding to the parent nodeand the child node that are displayed before and after the displaychange, using a different color from the other nodes 161. Alternatively,the display control portion 14 may display, on the display portion 15,at least one of the names of the nodes 161 corresponding to the parentnode and the child node that are displayed before and after the displaychange.

(Division of Cluster on Tree Structure Display)

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster is dividedusing a tree structure display in the third embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

In FIG. 16, in a similar way to FIG. 14, the display control portion 14causes the display portion 15 to display the map 100 and the treestructure display 160. The operation acquisition portion 11 acquires thetrajectory 120 of the user's pointing operation that traverses a linkbetween the nodes 161 displayed on the tree structure display 160. Theoperation acquisition portion 11 provides information about thetrajectory 120 to the cluster editing portion 12 and the display controlportion 14. The display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15to display the trajectory 120 as shown in FIG. 16. Also in the examplebelow, in a similar way to the first embodiment, the operationacquisition portion 11 may enter the cluster editing mode from thenormal mode in response to the user's touch on the specific section ofthe display portion 15, and may acquire the trajectory 120.

In the example shown in FIG. 16, the trajectory 120 traverses the linkbetween the nodes 161. When the trajectory 120 traverses the linkbetween the nodes 161 in this way, the cluster editing portion 12deletes the link traversed by the trajectory 120 in the cluster treestructure. Therefore, in the example shown in FIG. 16, the clusterediting portion 12 deletes the link between the node 161 “Neighborhood”and the node 161 “Yokohama station”.

It should be noted here that deletion of the link in the tree structureindicates deletion of a parent-child relationship between the nodes.More specifically, in the above example, the cluster editing portion 12deletes the parent-child relationship between the node 161“Neighborhood” and the node 161 “Yokohama station”. As a result, thecluster of the node 161 “Yokohama station” changes to an individualcluster that is not included in the cluster of the node 161“Neighborhood”. In other words, this link deletion is processing thatdivides the sub-cluster “Yokohama station” from the cluster“Neighborhood”. The cluster editing portion 12 reflects this editingresult on the cluster information 16. Note that, when the divided node161 “Yokohama station” has child nodes, a parent-child relationship withthe child nodes can be maintained and an individual tree structure canbe formed, in which the node 161 “Yokohama station” serves as a rootnode.

Further, the cluster editing portion 12 may provide the above-describedediting result to the display control portion 14, and the displaycontrol portion 14 may display the cluster “Yokohama station”independently from the cluster “Neighborhood” on the cluster display 130that is displayed on the map 100. In this way, the display controlportion 14 may reflect a result of the cluster editing performed by theuser operating the tree structure display 160, on the cluster display130 of the map 100 in real time. Conversely, the display control portion14 may reflect a result of the cluster editing performed by the useroperating the cluster display 130, on the tree structure display 160 inreal time. In summary, the cluster display 130 and the tree structuredisplay 160 can be interactive displays for cluster editing.

(Generation and Combining of Clusters on Tree Structure Display)

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example in which the clusters aregenerated and combined using the tree structure display in the thirdembodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 17 shows a process in whichthe clusters are generated and combined.

In (a) of FIG. 17, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the map 100, the cluster displays 130, the clustername displays 140, the tree structure display 160 and the nodes 161.This display is the same as the display after the cluster has beendivided up in the example shown in FIG. 16. More specifically, the treestructure display 160 shows a display of the cluster tree structure inwhich the node 161 “Home and neighborhood” is a root node, and the node161 “Yokohama station” that is independent from this cluster treestructure. The clusters “Home” and “Neighborhood”, and the cluster“Yokohama station” that is divided off and independent from the cluster“Neighborhood” are displayed on the map 100 as the cluster displays 130(note that the cluster name displays 140 other than “Neighborhood” arehidden under the tree structure display 160). The nodes 161 a thatindicate these clusters are displayed with a different color from theother nodes 161 b.

Here, the operation acquisition portion 11 acquires information about anoperation that the user uses to select a given position on the treestructure display 160. Here, information about an operation, such asdouble tap etc., can be obtained. The operation acquisition portion 11provides the acquired information about the operation to the clusterediting portion 12 and the display control portion 14. In accordancewith the information about the operation, the display control portion 14displays a new node 161 n in a position that is selected by the user onthe tree structure display 160. On the other hand, in response to theinformation about this operation, the cluster editing portion 12recognizes that the new node 161 n has been added to the cluster treestructure. However, the position of the new node 161 n in the treestructure has not yet been determined.

In (b) of FIG. 17, the operation acquisition portion 11 acquires thetrajectories 120 of pointing operations performed by the user drawinglinks between the nodes 161. The operation acquisition portion 11provides information about the trajectories 120 to the cluster editingportion 12 and the display control portion 14. The display controlportion 14 causes the display portion 15 to display the trajectories 120as shown in (b) of FIG. 17. On the other hand, the cluster editingportion 12 sets, in the cluster tree structure, a link between the newnode 161 n and the node 161 “Home and neighborhood”, and a link betweenthe new node 161 and the node 161 “Yokohama station”. Thus, the new node161 n is generated as a parent node of the node 161 “Home andneighborhood” and the node 161 “Yokohama station”. In other words, thislink setting is processing that combines the cluster “Home andneighborhood” and the cluster “Yokohama station” and thereby forms a newcluster.

In (c) of FIG. 17, the cluster editing portion 12 reflects a result ofthe above-described editing on the cluster information 16, and providesthe editing result to the cluster name editing portion 13 and thedisplay control portion 14. The cluster name editing portion 13generates a cluster name for the cluster shown by the new node 161 n. Inthe example shown in (c) of FIG. 17, when the parent node is newlygenerated, the cluster name editing portion 13 generates a cluster nameby jointly using the names of the corresponding child nodes. Morespecifically, the cluster name editing portion 13 generates the clustername “Home and neighborhood, Yokohama station” of the cluster shown bythe new node 161 n, by jointly using the cluster name “Home andneighborhood” and the cluster name “Yokohama station”. The cluster nameediting portion 13 provides information about the generated cluster nameto the display control portion 14.

On the other hand, the display control portion 14 reflects, on thecluster display 130 and the cluster name display 140, the informationabout the cluster and the cluster name provided from the cluster editingportion 12 and the cluster name editing portion 13, respectively. Morespecifically, the display control portion 14 displays, on the map 100,the cluster display 130 and the cluster name display 140 that show thenewly generated cluster “Home and neighborhood, Yokohama station”. Theclusters “Home”, “Neighborhood” and “Yokohama station” shown as thecluster displays 130 in (b) of FIG. 17 correspond to sub-clusters of thenewly displayed cluster “Home and neighborhood, Yokohama station”.Therefore, the cluster displays 130 and the cluster name displays 140 ofthese clusters may be deleted from the display portion 15.

Further, the display control portion 14 also reflects these pieces ofinformation on the display of the tree structure display 160. Morespecifically, the display control portion 14 displays the name “Home andneighborhood, Yokohama station” for the new node 161 n, and displays thelink between the new node 161 n and the node 161 “Home and neighborhood”and the link between the new node 161 n and the node 161 “Yokohamastation”. Further, in response to the change of the cluster display 130,the display control portion 14 displays the node “Home and neighborhood,Yokohama station” that was displayed as the node 161 n, as the node 161a with a different color from the other nodes 161 b.

(Deletion of Cluster on Tree Structure Display)

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster is deletedusing the tree structure display in the third embodiment of the presentdisclosure. FIG. 18 shows states before and after the cluster isdeleted.

In (a) of FIG. 18, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the map 100, the cluster display 130, the clustername display 140, the tree structure display 160 and the nodes 161. Thisdisplay is similar to the display after the clusters have been combinedin the example shown in FIG. 17. More specifically, the cluster treestructure, in which the node 161 “Home and neighborhood, Yokohamastation” is a root node, is displayed on the tree structure display 160.The cluster “Home and neighborhood, Yokohama station” is displayed asthe cluster display 130 on the map 100. The node 161 a indicating thecluster “Home and neighborhood, Yokohama station” is displayed with adifferent color from the other nodes 161 b.

Here, the operation acquisition portion 11 acquires the trajectories 120of the user's pointing operations, which traverse the nodes 161displayed on the tree structure display 160 a plurality of times. Theoperation acquisition portion 11 provides information about thetrajectories 120 to the cluster editing portion 12 and the displaycontrol portion 14. The display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the trajectories 120 as shown in (a) of FIG. 18.On the other hand, the cluster editing portion 12 deletes, in thecluster tree structure, the node 161 “Home and neighborhood, Yokohamastation” and the node 161 “Yokohama station” that have been respectivelytraversed the plurality of times by the trajectories 120.

In (b) of FIG. 18, the cluster editing portion 12 reflects a result ofthe above-described editing on the cluster information 16, and providesthe editing result to the display control portion 14. The displaycontrol portion 14 deletes, from the display portion 15, the clusterdisplay 130 and the cluster name display 140 that correspond to thedeleted node 161 “Home and neighborhood, Yokohama station”. Here, amongthe child nodes of the deleted node 161 “Home and neighborhood, Yokohamastation”, the node 161 “Home and neighborhood” is not deleted.Therefore, the display control portion 14 displays the cluster display130 and the cluster name display 140 of “Home and neighborhood” on themap 100, in place of those of “Home and neighborhood, Yokohama station”.On the other hand, among the child nodes of the deleted node 161 “Homeand neighborhood, Yokohama station”, the node 161 “Yokohama station” isdeleted together with the parent node. Further, the node 161 “Yokohamastation” is a leaf node having no child node. Therefore, the displaycontrol portion 14 displays image content included in the cluster“Yokohama station” on the map 100 as the image icon 110 (which is hiddenunder the tree structure display 160 in (b) of FIG. 18).

Further, the display control portion 14 reflects the above-describedchange on the display of the tree structure display 160. Specifically,the display control portion 14 deletes, from the tree structure display160, the deleted nodes 161 “Home and neighborhood, Yokohama station” and“Yokohama station”, and the display of the links connected to thesenodes 161. Further, the display control portion 14 displays the node 161a “Home and neighborhood” that is newly displayed as the cluster display130, using a different color from the other nodes 161 b.

In this way, in the present embodiment, the cluster indicated by thenode 161 can be edited by the user performing an operation on the node161 on the tree structure display 160. Thus, the user can performcluster editing while visually and comprehensively grasping informationof all of the clusters included in the tree structure.

Note that, as described above, in the present embodiment, the treestructure display 160 is displayed in addition to the map 100 that isalso displayed in the first and second embodiments. Therefore, thepresent embodiment can be achieved in combination with the first andsecond embodiments. In this case, the cluster editing portion 12 is setso that the cluster editing can be performed in accordance with both theuser's operation on the cluster display 130 on the map 100, and theuser's operation on the node 161 on the tree structure display 160. Thedisplay control portion 14 interactively reflects the result of thecluster editing on each of the displays.

Although the third embodiment was initially described with respect togeographic features, the scope of the embodiment should not be solimited. For example, instead of geographic clusters, the tree structurecould be used for organizing genealogy information. For example, afamily tree has people as its nodes and parents forming tree branches.Data, such as birth records, photos, videos, and other informationassociated with one or more people in the family may be associated withdifferent nodes in the family tree. The structure and processesdescribed in FIGS. 14-18 are equally applicable for clusteringfamily-related data according to a family tree hierarchical arrangement.

In this embodiment, to assist in generating meta-data that is associatedwith a photo, for example, as available in SONY® digital still cameras,face detection is used to associate people's faces with preregisteredfamily members. The preregistration is done on a local computer, or aremote server. When a photo is taken, the face recognition featurecompares the captured face, and associates face and then associates inmemory the face with the photograph. The association may be performedwith meta-data or a tag. Photos with common meta-data or tags are thenincluded in a common cluster, such as with a family tree. For example, achild's photograph would be associated not only with other photos of thechild, but also through a sibling-relationship, parent relationship, andgrandparent relationship. Thus, the child's photo may be a particulardata item, but a group of photos of the child may be grouped in acluster with the child's name. That cluster may then be combined withother clusters of siblings as part of a “children” cluster. Likewise,when the children cluster is combined with a parents cluster, a “family”cluster is created, using the family name.

4. Fourth Embodiment

Next, a fourth embodiment of the present disclosure will be explainedwith reference to FIG. 19 to FIG. 22. The fourth embodiment of thepresent disclosure is different from the above-described first to thirdembodiments in that editing of the cluster name is performed by thecluster name editing portion 13. However, the other processing issimilar to that of the first to third embodiments, and thus a detailedexplanation thereof is omitted.

(Tree Structure of Cluster Names)

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating a tree structure of cluster names inthe fourth embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 19 shows an example in which a cluster name N is generated based onan address A of each of the items of content that are classified intoclusters. In this example, n items of content from “content 1” to“content n” that are classified into the clusters are captured imagecontent items, and they respectively have address information A1 to Anindicating image capturing positions. Here, the address information A isinformation like “Japan, Kanto region, Kanagawa prefecture, Yokohamacity, Nishi ward, in front of station, 1-block”. In this example, theaddress information has a hierarchical structure of “country, region,prefecture, city, ward, town, block”.

In the present embodiment, the cluster name is generated using one or aplurality of names in a given hierarchy in the hierarchical structure ofthis type of address information. First, when names in the “ward”hierarchy are used to generate a cluster name, the names in the “ward”hierarchy that are included in the address information A of each contentare extracted. As a result, names N5-1 to N5-5 respectively indicating“Nishi ward”, “Kanagawa ward”, “Midori ward”, “Kawasaki ward” and“Saiwai ward” are extracted. Therefore, the cluster name that isgenerated using the names in the “ward” hierarchy is, for example,“Nishi ward, Kanagawa ward, Midori ward, Kawasaki ward, Saiwai ward”.

Next, when names in the “city” hierarchy are used to generate a clustername, the names in the “city” hierarchy that are included in the addressinformation A of each content are extracted. As a result, names N4-1 andN4-2 respectively indicating “Yokohama city” and “Kawasaki city” areextracted. Therefore, the cluster name that is generated using the namesin the “city” hierarchy is, for example, “Yokohama city, Kawasaki city”.

Next, when names in the “prefecture” hierarchy are used to generate acluster name, the names in the “prefecture” hierarchy that are includedin the address information A of each content are extracted. As a result,a name N3 indicating “Kanagawa prefecture” is extracted. In summary, inthe example shown in FIG. 19, the content items classified into theclusters are all captured in the Kanagawa prefecture. Accordingly, thecluster name that is generated using the names in the “prefecture”hierarchy is a name including the name N3 “Kanagawa prefecture”. In asimilar way, the cluster name that is generated using names in the“region” hierarchy is a name including a name N2 “Kanto region”.Further, the cluster name that is generated using the name of “country”is a name including a name N1 “Japan”.

(Cluster Name Change by Movement Operation)

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster name ischanged by an operation that moves the cluster name display in thefourth embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 20 shows a process inwhich the cluster name is changed.

In (a) of FIG. 20, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the map 100, the cluster display 130 and thecluster name display 140. The operation acquisition portion 11 acquiresinformation about an operation that the user uses to move the clustername display 140 to the right. Here, the operation that the user uses tomove the cluster name display 140 is, for example, a drag operation, aflick operation or the like with respect to the region of the clustername display 140. The operation acquisition portion 11 provides theinformation about the above-described operation to the cluster nameediting portion 13.

In (b) of FIG. 20, the cluster name editing portion 13 changes the namethat is displayed as the cluster name display 140. The cluster nameediting portion 13 utilizes the address hierarchical structure togenerate the cluster names, an example of which is explained withreference to FIG. 19, and thereby generates a cluster name using a namein the hierarchy that is one-level higher than the name used for theoriginal cluster name display 140. Specifically, the cluster nameediting portion 13 generates a cluster name using “Kanagawa prefecture”,which is the name in the “Prefecture” hierarchy that is one-level higherthan the “city” level name “Yokohama city, Kawasaki city” used for thecluster name display 140 in (a) of FIG. 20.

The cluster name editing portion 13 reflects the change of the clustername on the cluster information 16, and provides information about thenew cluster name to the display control portion 14. The display controlportion 14 causes the display portion 15 to display the provided newcluster name as the cluster name display 140. Specifically, the displaycontrol portion 14 changes a text 142 of the cluster name display 140from “Yokohama city, Kawasaki city” to “Kanagawa prefecture”. At thistime, the display control portion 14 may adjust the size of a frame 141of the cluster name display 140 in accordance with the text 142 afterthe change, without changing the display position of the frame 141.

Here, if the operation acquisition portion 11 acquires information aboutan operation that the user uses to move the cluster name display 140further to the right, the cluster name editing portion 13 generates acluster name using a name in a hierarchy that is even higher up.Specifically, the cluster name editing portion 13 generates a clustername using “Kanto region”, which is the name in the “region” hierarchythat is one-level higher than the “prefecture” level name “Kanagawaprefecture” used for the cluster name display 140 in (b) of FIG. 20.

In (c) of FIG. 20, the cluster name generated using “Kanto region” isprovided to the display control portion 14 and is displayed on thedisplay portion 15 as the cluster name display 140.

In this way, the cluster name editing portion 13 changes the hierarchyof the name used as the cluster name display 140, in accordance with auser's operation that moves the cluster name display 140. In the exampleshown in FIG. 20, in accordance with the operation that moves thecluster name display 140 to the right, a higher level name is displayedas the cluster name display 140. On the other hand, when an operation isperformed in which the cluster name display 140 is moved to the left, alower level name is displayed as the cluster name display 140. Morespecifically, when the operation acquisition portion 11 acquiresinformation about the operation that moves the cluster name display 140to the left, the display of the display portion 15 changes from (c) to(b), or from (b) to (a) of FIG. 20.

Note that the names displayed as the cluster name display 140 are notlimited to the examples of the three hierarchies shown in FIG. 20, andthe names may be changed between more than three hierarchies. Forexample, if information about the operation that moves the cluster namedisplay 140 to the left is acquired in the state shown in (a) of FIG.20, the cluster name editing portion 13 may generate a cluster nameusing “Nishi ward, Kanagawa ward, Midori ward, Kawasaki ward, Saiwaiward” that is one-level lower than the “city” level name, and thegenerated name may be displayed as the cluster name display 140.

In this way, the hierarchy of the cluster name is changed in response tothe operation that moves the cluster name display 140. Thus, forexample, the user can easily switch whether to simplify the cluster nameby using the name in a higher level hierarchy indicating a largerdistrict, or to show the content of the cluster in more detail byjointly using the names in a lower level hierarchy indicating a smallerdistrict. Further, a case in which the name in a higher level hierarchyis used and a case in which the names in a lower level hierarchy areused are respectively associated with different directions of theoperation that moves the cluster name display 140. As a result, theoperation to change the hierarchy can be performed more intuitively.

(Selection from Cluster Name List)

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster name ischanged by selection from a list in the fourth embodiment of the presentdisclosure. FIG. 21 shows a process in which the cluster name ischanged.

In (a) of FIG. 21, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the map 100, the cluster display 130 and a clustername list display 143. Here, the display control portion 14 may be setto enter the cluster name editing mode from the normal mode, and todisplay the cluster name list display 143 when the operation acquisitionportion 11 acquires information about a predetermined operationperformed by the user. The predetermined operation can be a longpressing operation or a tapping operation on the cluster name display140, for example. Further, the predetermined operation can be anoperation on the “editing start” button that is separately displayed,for example. Furthermore, the predetermined operation can becontinuation of the user's touch on the specific section of the displayportion 15 in a similar way to the first embodiment.

The cluster name list display 143 can be displayed when the cluster nameediting portion 13 provides the display control portion 14 withinformation about two or more names that can be displayed as the clustername display 140. In the example shown in (a) of FIG. 21, the clustername list display 143 is a list corresponding to the addresshierarchical structure. Specifically, the cluster name list display 143displays a list including, for example, “Kanagawa prefecture” that isthe “prefecture” level name, “Yokohama city, Kawasaki city” that is the“city” level name, “Nishi ward/Kanagawa ward/Midori ward/Kawasakiward/Saiwai ward” that is the “ward” level name. The operationacquisition portion 11 acquires information about an operation that theuser uses to select one of the names displayed on the cluster name listdisplay 143.

In (b) of FIG. 21, the cluster name editing portion 13 provides thedisplay control portion 14 with information about the name selected bythe operation, the information about which has been acquired by theoperation acquisition portion 11. The display control portion 14 causesthe display portion 15 to display the cluster name display 140 thatshows the selected name. In the example shown in (b) of FIG. 21, thecluster name display 140 generated using “Yokohama city, Kawasaki city”is displayed.

In the text 142 of the cluster name display 140 that is displayed inthis case, a section corresponding to “Yokohama city” is displayed in alarger size and a section corresponding to “Kawasaki city” is displayedin a smaller size. This indicates that, among the image content itemsincluded in the cluster shown by the cluster display 130, more imagecontent items are included in the district of “Yokohama city” than inthe district of “Kawasaki city”. In this way, the display controlportion 14 may acquire attribute information of a plurality of namesused as the cluster names from the cluster name editing portion 13, andmay change a display manner of displaying characters of the text 142 inaccordance with the number of pieces of the attribute information. Inthe example shown in (b) of FIG. 21, information about the number of theimage content items included in the district indicated by each of thenames is acquired from the cluster name editing portion 13 as theattribute information. In accordance with the attribute information, thedisplay control portion 14 changes the size of the characters as achange of the display manner.

In the above-described example, the attribute information is not limitedto the number of image content items included in the district indicatedby the name. The attribute information can be, for example, the categoryof the name (a commercial facility, a public facility, a housingfacility, a sightseeing spot etc.), the area, the population, or thenumber of households of the district indicated by the name, thepopularity of the district indicated by the name, whether or not thedistrict indicated by the name is one of the metropolis, a capital cityand a city designated by ordinance, or the number of times the name isselected by the user's editing operation.

Further, in the above-described example, the change of the displaymanner of the characters of the text 142 is not limited to a change inthe character size. The change of the display manner can be made, forexample, by changing the font type (Ming-style typeface, Gothic typefaceetc., for example), changing the color, changing to a bold face, oradding an under line.

In this way, the display manner of the characters of the text 142 ischanged in accordance with the attribute information of the name. Thus,the name that is chosen for the district is likely to feel appropriateto the user, such as a district including more image content items, amore prominent district or the like, can be distinctly displayed on thecluster name display 140. Further, it is possible to distinctly display,on the cluster name display 140, the name of the district that is likelyto be requested by the user, such as the name of the district which isincluded in the category specified by the user when capturing the imagecontent items or which has been used several times previously by theuser.

(Cluster Name Change by Pinch Operation)

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster name ischanged by a pinch operation on the cluster name display in the fourthembodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 22 shows a process in whichthe cluster name is changed.

In (a) of FIG. 22, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the map 100, the cluster display 130 and thecluster name display 140. The operation acquisition portion 11 acquiresinformation about a pinch-out operation performed on the cluster namedisplay 140. The operation acquisition portion 11 provides theinformation about the pinch-out operation to the cluster name editingportion 13 and the display control portion 14.

In (b) of FIG. 22, in accordance with the information about thepinch-out operation, the display control portion 14 enlarges the frame141 of the cluster name display 140. The cluster name editing portion 13provides the display control portion 14 with information about the name“Kanagawa prefecture Yokohama city, Kawasaki city” that is obtained byadding “Yokohama city, Kawasaki city”, which is the name in a lowerlevel hierarchy, to “Kanagawa prefecture”, which is the name displayedas the cluster name display 140 in (a) of FIG. 22. When the size of theframe 141 becomes sufficiently large, the display control portion 14changes the text 142 to “Kanagawa prefecture Yokohama city, Kawasakicity”. More specifically, as the frame 141 is enlarged by the pinch-outoperation, the display control portion 14 displays a longer name that isobtained by adding the lower level name to the name displayed as thecluster name display 140. Note that, at this time, there is no change inthe scale of the map 100 and in the size of the cluster display 130.

In (c) of FIG. 22, the display control portion 14 further enlarges theframe 141 because the operation acquisition portion 11 has subsequentlyacquired information about the pinch-out operation in the state shown in(b) of FIG. 22. The cluster name editing portion 13 provides the displaycontrol portion 14 with information about the name “Kanagawa prefectureYokohama city Nishi ward/Kanagawa ward/Midori ward, Kawasaki cityKawasaki ward/Saiwai ward” that is obtained by adding, to “Kanagawaprefecture Yokohama city, Kawasaki city”, the name in a lower levelhierarchy “Nishi ward/Kanagawa ward/Midori ward/Kawasaki ward/Saiwaiward”. When the size of the frame 141 becomes sufficiently large, thedisplay control portion 14 changes the text 142 to “Kanagawa prefectureYokohama city Nishi ward/Kanagawa ward/Midori ward, Kawasaki cityKawasaki ward/Saiwai ward”.

Note that, in this case, the newly displayed name is not a name that isobtained by simply adding the name in the lower level hierarchy to thename displayed in (b) of FIG. 22, but a name that is obtained byinserting “Nishi ward/Kanagawa ward/Midori ward” after “Yokohama city”and inserting “Kawasaki ward/Saiwai ward” after “Kawasaki city”. In thisway, the cluster name editing portion 13 may generate a longer clustername by inserting the name in the lower level hierarchy to a positionthat reflects the hierarchical structure of names such as that shown inFIG. 19.

On the other hand, when the operation acquisition portion 11 acquiresinformation about a pinch-in operation performed on the cluster namedisplay 140, the display control portion 14 reduces the size of theframe 141. The cluster name editing portion 13 provides the displaycontrol portion 14 with information about the name that is obtained bydeleting the name in the lowest level hierarchy from the name displayedas the cluster name display 140. When the size of the frame 141 becomestoo small to fully display the text 142, the display control portion 14changes the cluster name of the text 142 to the shorter cluster nameprovided from the cluster name editing portion 13. More specifically,when the information about the pinch-in operation is acquired, thedisplay of the display portion 15 changes from (c) to (b), or from (b)to (a) of FIG. 22.

In this way, in the present embodiment, in response to the user'soperation performed on the cluster name display 140, it is possible toedit the cluster name that is generated using the names having thehierarchical structure of addresses or the like. Thus, the user canchange the hierarchy of the displayed name by an intuitive operation,and can easily search the cluster name that is considered to be suitablefor expressing the cluster.

Note that, as described above, the cluster name display 140 is operatedin the present embodiment unlike the first to third embodiments.Therefore, the present embodiment can be achieved in combination withthe first to third embodiments. For example, when the present embodimentis combined with the first embodiment or the second embodiment, theinformation processing device 10 is set such that the processing of thefirst or second embodiment is performed for the operation on the clusterdisplay 130, and the processing of the present embodiment is performedfor the operation on the cluster name display 140. Further, when thepresent embodiment is combined with the third embodiment, theinformation processing device 10 is set such that editing of the clusterand the cluster name is performed in accordance with an operationperformed with respect to the cluster display 130 and the cluster namedisplay 140 on the map 100, and in accordance with an operationperformed with respect to the nodes 161 on the tree structure display160. In this case, an editing result of the cluster and the cluster nameis interactively reflected on each of the displays of the clusterdisplay 130, the cluster name display 140 and the tree structure display160.

5. Fifth Embodiment

Next, a fifth embodiment of the present disclosure will be explainedwith reference to FIG. 23. The fifth embodiment of the presentdisclosure is different from the above-described third embodiment inthat the tree structure display is used to edit the cluster name.However, the other processing is similar to that of the thirdembodiment, and thus a detailed explanation thereof is omitted.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing an example in which the cluster name is setusing the tree structure display in the fifth embodiment of the presentdisclosure. FIG. 23 shows a process in which the cluster name is set.

In (a) of FIG. 23, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the map 100, the cluster display 130, the clustername display 140 and the tree structure display 160. Here, the displaycontrol portion 14 may be set to enter the cluster name editing modefrom the normal mode when the operation acquisition portion 11 acquiresinformation about a predetermined operation performed by the user, andmay be set to delete just the text 142 of the cluster name display 140without deleting the frame 141, and to display the tree structuredisplay 160. The predetermined operation can be a long pressingoperation or a tapping operation on the cluster name display 140, forexample. Further, the predetermined operation can be an operation on the“editing start” button that is separately displayed, for example.Furthermore, the predetermined operation can be continuation of theuser's touch on the specific section of the display portion 15 in asimilar way to the first embodiment.

In (b) of FIG. 23, the operation acquisition portion 11 acquiresinformation about an operation that the user uses to select the nodes161. The operation acquisition portion 11 provides the information aboutthis operation to the cluster name editing portion 13. The cluster nameediting portion 13 generates a cluster name using the names of the nodes161 selected by the user's operation. In the example shown in (b) ofFIG. 23, the three nodes 161 “Home”, “Kanagawa gakuen high school” and“Yokohama station” are selected, and the cluster name editing portion 13generates a cluster name “Home, Kanagawa gakuen high school, Yokohamastation” in which the names of these nodes 161 are jointly used. Thecluster name editing portion 13 provides information about the generatedcluster name to the display control portion 14.

In (c) of FIG. 23, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the provided cluster name as the text 142 of thecluster name display 140. At this time, the display control portion 14may adjust the size of the frame 141 in accordance with the length ofthe text 142 to be displayed. The display control portion 14 may end thecluster name editing mode and delete the tree structure display 160 fromthe display portion 15. In a case where the tree structure display 160is displayed before entering the cluster name editing mode, the displaycontrol portion 14 may continue to display the tree structure display160.

In this way, in the present embodiment, it is possible to edit the namedisplayed as the cluster name display 140 in accordance with the user'soperation performed with respect to the nodes 161 on the tree structuredisplay 160. Thus, the user can edit the cluster name while visually andcomprehensively grasping information of all of the clusters included inthe tree structure.

Note that, as described above, the present embodiment has a similarconfiguration to the third embodiment. Therefore, in a similar way tothe third embodiment, the present embodiment can be achieved incombination with each of the other embodiments.

6. Sixth Embodiment

Next, a sixth embodiment of the present disclosure will be explainedwith reference to FIG. 24 and FIG. 25. The sixth embodiment of thepresent disclosure applies the above-described first to fifthembodiments to a chosen dimensional feature space. Therefore, thedescription other than the dimension of the feature space is similar tothat of each of the above-described embodiments, and thus a detailedexplanation thereof is omitted.

FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a chosendimensional feature space and a two-dimensional feature space. FIG. 24shows a cluster C in a chosen dimensional feature space, and aprojection Cp of the cluster C onto a two-dimensional plane. The clusterC can be displayed on the display portion 15 of the informationprocessing device 10 by transformation to the projection Cp. In thepresent embodiment, editing is added to the cluster C based on anediting operation of the projection Cp that is similar to an editingoperation of the cluster in the two-dimensional feature space.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing an example in which clusters are combinedin the sixth embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 25 shows statesbefore and after the clusters are combined.

In (a) of FIG. 25, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display a three-dimensional space 200, cluster displays230 and the cluster name displays 140. The three-dimensional space 200is a three-dimensional feature space in which, for example, a geographicspace is displayed. In the example shown in (a) of FIG. 25, Mt. Fuji isdisplayed in the three-dimensional space 200. The cluster display 230can be displayed as a projection of the cluster onto a two-dimensionalplane in the three-dimensional space 200.

Here, the operation acquisition portion 11 acquires the trajectory 120of a pointing operation performed by the user. The trajectory 120surrounds the two cluster displays 230 “Top of Mt. Fuji” and “Foot ofMt. Fuji”. The operation acquisition portion 11 provides informationabout the trajectory 120 to the cluster editing portion 12 and thedisplay control portion 14. The display control portion 14 causes thedisplay portion 15 to display the trajectory 120 as shown in (a) of FIG.25.

In (b) of FIG. 25, the cluster editing portion 12 generates a newcluster that contains the clusters shown by the above-described twocluster displays 230. The cluster editing portion 12 providesinformation about the generated cluster to the display control portion14, and the display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15 todisplay a projection of the new cluster onto the two-dimensional plane,as the cluster displays 230. Further, the cluster editing portion 12provides the information about the generated cluster to the cluster nameediting portion 13, and the cluster name editing portion 13 generates acluster name for the generated cluster. The cluster name editing portion13 provides the generated cluster name to the display control portion14, and the display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15 todisplay the cluster name “Mt. Fuji” as the cluster name display 140.

In this way, in the present embodiment, the projection of the clusteronto a two-dimensional plane in the three-dimensional space 200, whichis a three-dimensional feature space, is displayed as the clusterdisplay 230, and the cluster is edited in accordance with an operationperformed on the cluster display 230. In a similar way, if theprojection of a cluster onto a two-dimensional plane in a chosendimensional feature space is displayed as a cluster display and thecluster is edited in accordance with an operation performed on thecluster display, the configuration similar to that of theabove-described first to fifth embodiments can be applied not only tothe case of the map 100, which is a two-dimensional feature space, butalso to a chosen dimensional feature space.

7. Seventh Embodiment

Next, a seventh embodiment of the present disclosure will be explainedwith reference to FIG. 26 to FIG. 31. The seventh embodiment of thepresent disclosure is different from each of the above-describedembodiments in that files in a file system and the display of a folderare taken to be position data item in a one-dimensional feature spaceand the display of a cluster. However, the other processing is similarto that of each of the above-described embodiments, and thus a detailedexplanation thereof is omitted.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating a feature space and position data itemin the seventh embodiment of the present disclosure.

In FIG. 26, the display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15to display file icons 310. The file icons 310 are arranged in accordancewith a criterion set in advance, such as name, update date and time,size, type and the like. In the present embodiment, a file layout 300 istaken to be a one-dimensional feature space. In this case, the fileicons 310 are data displays that show position data item of the featurespace.

(Generation of Folder)

FIG. 27 is a diagram showing an example in which a folder is generatedin the seventh embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 27 showsstates before and after the folder is generated.

In (a) of FIG. 27, the operation acquisition portion 11 acquires atrajectory 320 of a user's pointing operation performed with respect tothe file icons 310 displayed on the display portion 15. For example,when the operation acquisition portion 11 is a mouse, the trajectory 320can be acquired as a trajectory of a pointer moved by the mouse.Further, for example, when the operation acquisition portion 11 is atouch panel, the trajectory 320 can be acquired as a trajectory of auser's touch on the display portion 15. The operation acquisitionportion 11 provides information about the trajectory 320 to the clusterediting portion 12 and the display control portion 14. When the displaycontrol portion 14 acquires the information about the trajectory 320,the display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15 to displaythe trajectory 320 as shown in (a) of FIG. 27.

On the other hand, when the cluster editing portion 12 acquires theinformation about the trajectory 320, the cluster editing portion 12determines how to edit the folder based on the shape of the trajectory320. In the example shown in (a) of FIG. 27, the trajectory 320surrounds the two file icons 310, i.e., “text A.txt” and “text B.txt”.When the trajectory 320 surrounds the file icons 310 in this way, thecluster editing portion 12 generates a new folder that contains thefiles indicated by the surrounded file icons 310. Note that, in thepresent embodiment, the folder is treated as a cluster into which filesare classified. The files are position data item that are arranged inparticular positions of the file layout 300.

In (b) of FIG. 27, the cluster editing portion 12 generates a folderthat contains the above-described two files. The cluster editing portion12 provides information about the generated folder to the displaycontrol portion 14, and the display control portion 14 causes thedisplay portion 15 to display a folder icon 330 that indicates thegenerated folder. At this time, the display control portion 14 deletesthe file icons 310 that indicate the files contained in the folder, fromthe display portion 15.

On the other hand, the cluster editing portion 12 provides theinformation about the generated folder to the cluster name editingportion 13, and the cluster name editing portion 13 generates a foldername for the generated folder. For example, the cluster name editingportion 13 generates a folder name “text A and text B” by jointly usingthe file names contained in the folder. The cluster name editing portion13 provides information about the generated folder name to the displaycontrol portion 14, and the display control portion 14 displays thefolder name in the vicinity of the corresponding folder icon 330, as afolder name display 340.

(Combining of Folders)

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing an example in which folders are combined inthe seventh embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 28 shows statesbefore and after the folders are combined.

In (a) of FIG. 28, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the folder icons 330 and the folder name displays340. The operation acquisition portion 11 acquires the trajectory 320.The operation acquisition portion 11 provides information about thetrajectory 320 to the cluster editing portion 12 and the display controlportion 14. The display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15to display the trajectory 320 as shown in (a) of FIG. 28.

In the example shown in (a) of FIG. 28, the trajectory 320 surrounds thetwo folder icons 330. When the trajectory 320 surrounds the folder icons330 in this way, the cluster editing portion 12 generates a new folderthat contains the folders indicated by the surrounded folder icons 330.

In (b) of FIG. 28, the cluster editing portion 12 generates a new folderthat contains the folders indicated by the above-described two foldericons 330. At this time, the cluster editing portion 12 holdsinformation about the original two folders in the cluster information16. Further, the cluster editing portion 12 generates a new folder as ahigher level folder of these folders. In this case, the original twofolders and the new folder have a parent-child relationship in a treestructure, and information of the tree structure formed by these foldersis held in the cluster information 16.

Here, the cluster editing portion 12 provides information about thegenerated new folder to the display control portion 14, and the displaycontrol portion 14 causes the display portion 15 to display the foldericon 330 that indicates the new folder. Further, the display controlportion 14 deletes, from the display portion 15, the folder icons 330indicating the original two folders that are contained in the newfolder.

On the other hand, the cluster editing portion 12 provides theinformation about the generated folder to the cluster name editingportion 13, and the cluster name editing portion 13 generates a foldername for the generated folder. For example, the cluster name editingportion 13 generates a folder name “text and music” by jointly using thefolder names contained in the generated folder. The cluster name editingportion 13 provides information about the generated folder name to thedisplay control portion 14, and the display control portion 14 displaysthe folder name in the vicinity of the corresponding folder icon 330, asthe folder name display 340.

(Division of Folder)

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing a first example in which the folder isdivided in the seventh embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 29shows states before and after the folder is divided.

In the first example, the folder is divided using information of thefolder tree structure that is held in the cluster information 16. Morespecifically, the folder is divided by changing the folder displayed asthe folder icon 330 from a parent folder to child folders in the treestructure.

In (a) of FIG. 29, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the folder icon 330 and the folder name display340. The operation acquisition portion 11 acquires the trajectory 320.The operation acquisition portion 11 provides information about thetrajectory 320 to the cluster editing portion 12 and the display controlportion 14. The display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15to display the trajectory 320 as shown in (a) of FIG. 29.

In the example shown in (a) of FIG. 29, the trajectory 320 traverses thefolder icon 330. When the trajectory 320 traverses the folder icon 330in this way, the cluster editing portion 12 divides the folder indicatedby the traversed folder icon 330.

In (b) of FIG. 29, the cluster editing portion 12 divides the folderindicated by the above-described folder icon 330 into two folders. Asdescribed above, the two folders after the division are lower levelfolders of the original folder in the folder tree structure. The clusterediting portion 12 provides information about the folders after thedivision to the display control portion 14, and the display controlportion 14 causes the display portion 15 to display the folder icons 330indicating the folders after the division. At this time, the displaycontrol portion 14 deletes the folder icon 330 indicating the folderbefore the division, from the display portion 15.

On the other hand, the cluster editing portion 12 provides informationabout the folders after the division to the cluster name editing portion13, and the cluster name editing portion 13 acquires folder names of thefolders after the division that are held in the cluster information 16,and provides the folder names to the display control portion 14. Thedisplay control portion 14 displays, as the folder name displays 340,the provided folder names in the vicinity of the corresponding foldericons 330.

FIG. 30 is a diagram showing a second example in which the folder isdivided in the seventh embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 30shows states before and after the folder is divided.

In (a) of FIG. 30, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the folder icon 330 and thumbnail displays 331.Note that the thumbnail displays 331 are icons that show files containedin the folder indicated by the folder icon 330, using thumbnail imagesetc. The operation acquisition portion 11 acquires the trajectory 320.The operation acquisition portion 11 provides information about thetrajectory 320 to the cluster editing portion 12 and the display controlportion 14. The display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15to display the trajectory 320 as shown in (a) of FIG. 30.

In the example shown in (a) of FIG. 30, the trajectory 320 traverses thefolder icon 330. When the trajectory 320 traverses the folder icon 330in this way, the cluster editing portion 12 divides the folder indicatedby the traversed folder icon 330.

Further, in the example shown in (a) of FIG. 30, the trajectory 320classifies the thumbnail displays 331 included in the folder indicatedby the folder icon 330, into a thumbnail display 331 a and thumbnaildisplays 331 b. In this type of case, the cluster editing portion 12divides the folder indicated by the folder icon 330, in accordance withthe classification of the thumbnail displays 331 classified by thetrajectory 320.

In (b) of FIG. 30, the cluster editing portion 12 divides the folderindicated by the above-described folder icon 330 into two folders. Thesefolders are folders that respectively contain the file shown by thethumbnail display 331 a and the files shown by the thumbnail displays331 b, which are classified by the trajectory 320. The cluster editingportion 12 provides information about the folders after the division tothe display control portion 14, and the display control portion 14causes the display portion 15 to display the folder icons 330 thatindicate the folders after the division. At this time, the displaycontrol portion 14 deletes the folder icon 330 that indicates the folderbefore the division, from the display portion 15. However, the thumbnaildisplays 331 may continue to be displayed in order to show the filescontained in the folders indicated by the respective folder icons 330.

(Deletion of Folder)

FIG. 31 is a diagram showing an example in which the folder is deletedin the seventh embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 31 showsstates before and after the folder is deleted.

In (a) of FIG. 31, the display control portion 14 causes the displayportion 15 to display the folder icon 330 and the folder name display340. The operation acquisition portion 11 acquires the trajectory 320.The operation acquisition portion 11 provides information about thetrajectory 320 to the cluster editing portion 12 and the display controlportion 14. The display control portion 14 causes the display portion 15to display the trajectory 320 as shown in (a) of FIG. 31.

In the example shown in (a) of FIG. 31, the trajectory 320 traverses thefolder icon 330 three times. When the trajectory 320 traverses thefolder icon 330 a plurality of times in this way, the cluster editingportion 12 deletes the folder indicated by the traversed folder icon330.

In the present embodiment, both the folder division and the folderdeletion are performed when the trajectory 320 traverses the folder icon330. The movement that traverses the folder icon 330, which is performedby the user using the trajectory of a pointing operation, is movementthat intuitively evokes both the division and the deletion of thefolder. Therefore, it is desirable that, while the trajectory 320traversing the folder icon 330 is used as a trigger for both thedivision and the deletion of the folder, it is determined whether thefolder is to be divided or the folder is to be deleted based on somekind of standard that feels natural to the user.

Given this, the cluster editing portion 12 determines whether the folderis to be divided or the folder is to be deleted based on the number oftimes the trajectory 320 traverses the folder icon 330. Morespecifically, when the trajectory 320 traverses the folder icon 330once, the cluster editing portion 12 divides the folder. On the otherhand, when the trajectory 320 traverses the folder icon 330 multipletimes, the cluster editing portion 12 deletes the folder. At this time,the cluster editing portion 12 may delete the files contained in thedeleted folder, together with the folder. In this case, theabove-described determination based on the number of times traversing isperformed may include a determination as to whether only the folder isto be deleted or the folder and the files are to be deleted together.For example, when the trajectory 320 traverses the folder icon 330 twoor three times, the cluster editing portion 12 may delete only thefolder, and when the trajectory 320 traverses the folder icon 330 fouror more times, the cluster editing portion 12 may delete the folder andthe files contained in the folder.

Note that the number of times that is used as the standard fordetermination is not limited to the above-described example. Forexample, as in the second example of the folder division, when thefolder is divided by the trajectory 320 classifying the thumbnaildisplays 331 contained in the folder icon 330, it is likely to benecessary for the trajectory 320 to have a complicated shape in order toallow classification. Therefore, a larger number of times may be used asthe standard for determination. Further, in order to inhibit the folderfrom being deleted by an erroneous operation, the trajectory 320 mayhave to traverse the folder icon 330 three times or more, for example,before the folder can be deleted.

In (b) of FIG. 31, the cluster editing portion 12 deletes the folderindicated by the above-described folder icon 330. The files contained inthe deleted folder are currently not contained in the folder (moreprecisely, the files are directly contained in a root folder, which isnot displayed). The cluster editing portion 12 provides the displaycontrol portion 14 with information about the deleted folder and thefiles classified into the deleted folder. The display control portion 14deletes the folder icon 330 indicating the deleted folder from thedisplay portion 15. At the same time, the display control portion 14causes the display portion 15 to display the file icons 310 indicatingthe files contained in the deleted folder.

In this way, in the present embodiment, information about the user'soperation on the folder icon 330 can be acquired as the trajectory 320of the pointing operation, and various types of folder editing can beperformed depending on the shape of the trajectory 320. Thus, the usercan add various types of editing to the folder displayed as the foldericon 330, by performing an intuitive operation.

8. Hardware Configuration

Next, a hardware configuration of the information processing device 10according to an embodiment of the present disclosure described abovewill be described in detail with reference to FIG. 32. FIG. 32 is ablock diagram for describing a hardware configuration of the informationprocessing device 10 according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

The information processing device 10 includes a CPU 901, a ROM 903, anda RAM 905. Furthermore, the information processing device 10 may alsoinclude a host bus 907, a bridge 909, and external bus 911, an interface913, an input device 915, an output device 917, a storage device 919, adrive 921, a connection port 923, and a communication device 925.

The CPU 901 functions as a processing device and a control device, andcontrols the overall operation or a part of the operation of theinformation processing device 10 according to various programs recordedin the ROM 903, the RAM 905, the storage device 919 or a removablestorage medium 927. The ROM 903 stores programs to be used by the CPU901, processing parameters and the like. The RAM 905 temporarily storesprograms to be used in the execution of the CPU 901, parameters thatvary in the execution, and the like. The CPU 901, the ROM 903 and theRAM 905 are connected to one another through the host bus 907 configuredby an internal bus such as a CPU bus.

The host bus 907 is connected to the external bus 911 such as a PCI(Peripheral Component Interconnect/Interface) bus via the bridge 909.

The input device 915 is input means to be operated by a user, such as amouse, a keyboard, a touch panel, a button, a switch, a lever or thelike. Further, the input device 915 may be remote control means thatuses an infrared or another radio wave, or it may be anexternally-connected appliance 929 such as a mobile phone, a PDA or thelike conforming to the operation of the information processing device10. Furthermore, the input device 915 is configured from an inputcontrol circuit or the like for generating an input signal based oninformation input by a user with the operation means described above andoutputting the signal to the CPU 901. A user of the informationprocessing device 10 can input various kinds of data to the informationprocessing device 10 or instruct the information processing device 10 toperform processing, by operating the input device 915.

The output device 917 is configured from a device that is capable ofvisually or auditorily notifying a user of acquired information.Examples of such device include a display device such as a CRT displaydevice, a liquid crystal display device, a plasma display device, an ELdisplay device or a lamp, an audio output device such as a speaker or aheadphone, a printer, a mobile phone, a facsimile and the like. Theoutput device 917 outputs results obtained by various processesperformed by the information processing device 10, for example. To bespecific, the display device displays, in the form of text or image,results obtained by various processes performed by the informationprocessing device 10. On the other hand, the audio output deviceconverts an audio signal such as reproduced audio data or acoustic datainto an analogue signal, and outputs the analogue signal.

The storage device 919 is a device for storing data configured as anexample of a storage unit of the information processing device 10. Thestorage device 919 is configured from, for example, a magnetic storagedevice such as a HDD (Hard Disk Drive), a semiconductor storage device,an optical storage device, or a magneto-optical storage device. Thisstorage device 919 stores programs to be executed by the CPU 901,various types of data, and various types of data obtained from theoutside, for example.

The drive 921 is a reader/writer for a recording medium, and isincorporated in or attached externally to the information processingdevice 10. The drive 921 reads information recorded in the attachedremovable storage medium 927 such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, amagneto-optical disk, or a semiconductor memory, and outputs theinformation to the RAM 905. Furthermore, the drive 921 can write in theattached removable storage medium 927 such as a magnetic disk, anoptical disk, a magneto-optical disk, or a semiconductor memory. Theremovable storage medium 927 is, for example, a DVD medium, an HD-DVDmedium, or a Blu-ray (registered trademark) medium. The removablestorage medium 927 may be a CompactFlash (CF; registered trademark), aflash memory, an SD memory card (Secure Digital Memory Card), or thelike. Alternatively, the removable storage medium 927 may be, forexample, an electronic appliance or an IC card (Integrated Circuit Card)equipped with a non-contact IC chip.

The connection port 923 is a port for allowing devices to directlyconnect to the information processing device 10. Examples of theconnection port 923 include a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port, an IEEE1394 port, a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) port, and the like.Other examples of the connection port 923 include an RS-232C port, anoptical audio terminal, an HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface)port, and the like. With the externally connected device 929 connectedto this connection port 923, the information processing device 10directly obtains various types of data from the externally connecteddevice 929, and provides various types of data to the externallyconnected device 929.

The communication device 925 is a communication interface configuredfrom, for example, a communication device for connecting to acommunication network 931. The communication device 925 is, for example,a wired or wireless LAN (Local Area Network), a Bluetooth (registeredtrademark), a communication card for WUSB (Wireless USB), or the like.Alternatively, the communication device 925 may be a router for opticalcommunication, a router for ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), amodem for various communications, or the like. This communication device925 can transmit and receive signals and the like in accordance with apredetermined protocol, such as TCP/IP, on the Internet and with othercommunication devices, for example. The communication network 931connected to the communication device 925 is configured from a networkor the like connected via wire or wirelessly, and may be, for example,the Internet, a home LAN, infrared communication, radio wavecommunication, satellite communication or the like.

Heretofore, an example of the hardware configuration of the informationprocessing device 10 has been shown. Each of the structural elementsdescribed above may be configured using a general-purpose material, ormay be configured from hardware dedicated to the function of eachstructural element. Accordingly, the hardware configuration to be usedcan be changed as appropriate according to the technical level at thetime of carrying out each of the embodiments described above.

9. Supplement

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that variousmodifications, combinations, sub-combinations and alterations may occurdepending on design requirements and other factors insofar as they arewithin the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST

-   -   10 Information processing device    -   11 Operation acquisition portion    -   12 Cluster editing portion    -   13 Cluster name editing portion    -   14 Display control portion    -   15 Display portion    -   16 Cluster information    -   100 Map    -   110 Image icon    -   120, 320 Trajectory    -   130, 230 Clusters display    -   135 Sub-cluster display    -   145 Sub-cluster name display    -   140 Cluster name display    -   160 Tree structure display    -   161 Node    -   200 Three-dimensional space    -   300 File layout    -   310 File icon    -   330 Folder icon    -   331 Thumbnail display    -   340 Folder name display

The invention claimed is:
 1. An information processing device,comprising: circuitry configured to: display, on a display device, afirst name of a first cluster comprising a first plurality of dataitems, wherein the first plurality of data items have at least a firstdata item association; acquire a first trajectory of a first useroperation on the first cluster; generate at least one second clustercomprising a second plurality of data items, based on the firsttrajectory, wherein the second plurality of data items have at least asecond data item association different from the at least first data itemassociation; display at least two names for the at least one secondcluster, based on the at least second data item association; detect asecond user operation that corresponds to selection of a second namefrom the at least two names, wherein the second name comprises aplurality of words; acquire first information of the second name,wherein the first information comprises a third plurality of data items,and wherein each of the third plurality of data items corresponds to arespective one of the plurality of words; edit, based on the at leastsecond data item association and the first information, the second nameto generate a third name of the at least one second cluster; display theat least one second cluster with the third name; display the firstplurality of data items as a tree structure; and control modification ofa node in the tree structure, based on the first trajectory of the firstuser operation that is across the tree structure.
 2. The informationprocessing device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is furtherconfigured to receive the first user operation through a localinterface.
 3. The information processing device of claim 1, wherein thecircuitry is further configured to receive the first user operation froma remote device.
 4. The information processing device of claim 1,wherein the information processing device further comprises a touchpanel configured to receive the first user operation.
 5. The informationprocessing device of claim 1, wherein the first trajectory is a closedloop that surrounds the first plurality of data items.
 6. Theinformation processing device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry isfurther configured to: acquire a second trajectory of a third useroperation on at least two clusters other than each of the first clusterand the at least one second cluster; merge the at least two clustersinto a third cluster, based on the second trajectory that is a closedloop that surrounds the at least two clusters, wherein the third clusterhas a fourth plurality of data items; and create a fourth name for thethird cluster, based on a common data item association for the fourthplurality of data items.
 7. The information processing device of claim1, wherein the circuitry is further configured to: divide the firstcluster into at least a third cluster and at least a fourth clusterbased on the first trajectory of the first user operation that bisectsthe first cluster, wherein the at least third cluster has a fourthplurality of data items and the at least fourth cluster has a fifthplurality of data items; create a fourth name for the at least thirdcluster, based on a first common data item association for the fourthplurality of data items; and create a fifth name for the at least fourthcluster, based on a second common data item association for the fifthplurality of data items.
 8. The information processing device of claim1, wherein the circuitry is further configured to: terminate display ofthe first cluster, based on the first trajectory of the first useroperation that traces a pattern over the first cluster; and display thefirst plurality of data items.
 9. The information processing device ofclaim 4, wherein the circuitry is further configured to: register one ofa drag operation, a flick operation or a pinch operation; merge at leasttwo clusters, other than each of the first cluster and the at least onesecond cluster, into a third cluster based on one of the drag operation,the flick operation, or the pinch operation that urges the at least twoclusters towards each other, wherein the third cluster has a fourthplurality of data items; and generate a fourth name for the thirdcluster, based on a common data item association for the fourthplurality of data items.
 10. The information processing device of claim1, wherein the circuitry is further configured to: receive a pinch-outoperation on a third cluster other than each of the first cluster andthe at least one second cluster; divide the third cluster into at leasta fourth cluster and at least a fifth cluster, based on the pinch-outoperation; and display a fourth name for the at least fourth cluster anda fifth name for the at least fifth cluster.
 11. The informationprocessing device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is furtherconfigured to display the first cluster in a dimensional feature spaceby transformation of the first cluster into the dimensional featurespace.
 12. The information processing device of claim 11, wherein thedimensional feature space is a geographic space and each of the firstplurality of data items is a geographic data item.
 13. The informationprocessing device of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of data itemsare files, and the first cluster is a folder that contains the files.14. The information processing device of claim 13, wherein the files arephotographs, and wherein the circuitry is further configured to: detecta plurality of faces of people in the photographs; and associate thephotographs with the first cluster.
 15. The information processingdevice of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is further configured togenerate the at least one second cluster based on a shape of the firsttrajectory of the first user operation.
 16. The information processingdevice of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is further configured to entera cluster editing mode to edit the second name, based on detection of athird user operation on the display device.
 17. An informationprocessing method, comprising: in an information processing device:displaying, on a display device, a first name of a first clustercomprising a first plurality of data items, wherein the first pluralityof data items have at least a first data item association; acquiring afirst trajectory of a first user operation on the first cluster;generating at least one second cluster comprising a second plurality ofdata items, based on the first trajectory, wherein the second pluralityof data items have at least a second data item association differentfrom the at least first data item association; displaying at least twonames for the at least one second cluster, based on the at least seconddata item association; detecting a second user operation thatcorresponds to selection of a second name from the at least two names,wherein the second name comprises a plurality of words; acquiring firstinformation of the second name, wherein the first information comprisesa third plurality of data items, and wherein each of the third pluralityof data items corresponds to a respective one of the plurality of words;editing, based on the at least second data item association and thefirst information, the second name to generate a third name of the atleast one second cluster; displaying the at least one second clusterwith the third name; displaying the first plurality of data items as atree structure; and controlling modification of a node in the treestructure, based on the first trajectory of the first user operationthat is across the tree structure.
 18. The information processing methodof claim 17, further comprising registering the first user operation ona touch panel.
 19. The information processing method of claim 17,wherein the first trajectory surrounds the first plurality of dataitems.
 20. The information processing method of claim 17, furthercomprising: acquiring a second trajectory of a third user operation onat least two clusters other than each of the first cluster and the atleast one second cluster; merging the at least two clusters into a thirdcluster, based on the second trajectory that surrounds the at least twoclusters, wherein the third cluster has a fourth plurality of dataitems; and creating a fourth name for the third cluster, based on acommon data item association for the fourth plurality of data items. 21.A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon,computer-executable instructions, which when executed by a computercause the computer to execute operations, the operations comprising:displaying, on a display device, a first name of a first clustercomprising a first plurality of data items, wherein the first pluralityof data items have at least a first data item association; acquiring atrajectory of a first user operation on the first cluster; generating atleast one second cluster comprising a second plurality of data items,based on the trajectory, wherein the second plurality of data items haveat least a second data item association different from the at leastfirst data item association; displaying at least two names for the atleast one second cluster, based on the at least second data itemassociation; detecting a second user operation that corresponds toselection of a second name from the at least two names, wherein thesecond name comprises a plurality of words; acquiring first informationof the second name, wherein the first information comprises a thirdplurality of data items, and wherein each of the third plurality of dataitems corresponds to a respective one of the plurality of words;editing, based on the at least second data item association and thefirst information, the second name to generate a third name of the atleast one second cluster; displaying the at least one second clusterwith the third name; displaying the first plurality of data items as atree structure; and controlling modification of a node in the treestructure, based on the trajectory of the first user operation that isacross the tree structure.